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By 

RAYMON^ KELLY 


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OGO THE BEAVER 





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« 


OGO THE BEAVER 


by 

Raymond Kelly 


\\ 



Pictured by KURT WlESE 


JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 

ALBERT^WHITAAAN 
& 4 CO- 

CHICAGO 


1934 


3 











O-GO THE BEAVER 


COPYRIGHT 1934 BY 
ALBERT WHITMAN & COMPANY 


YLio 

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$ 

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LITHOGRAPHED IN THE U. S. A. 
NEWMAN RUDOLPH 
CHICAGO 

GClA 78125 

NOV 15 1334 






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TABLE OF CONTENTS 


O-Go And His Family. 

PAGE 

. . 15 

First Explorations. 

. . 20 

A New Lesson. 

. . 26 

The Lily Cove. 

. . 32 

O-Go's First Enemy .. 

. . 38 

Ranger Wallace. 

. . . 46 

Home Again. 

. . . 51 

A New Lodge. 

... 59 

O-Go’s Second Enemy. 

... 69 

Work And Play. 

... 76 

The Big Poplar Tree 

... 85 

O-Go's Third Enemy. 

... 91 

Autumn Preparations. 

. . .101 

The Invaders. 

. . .106 

Winter Food. 

. . .113 

Uncle Castor. 

. . .117 

Ranger Wallace Again. 

. . . 124 

O-Go's Fourth Enemy. 

. . .128 

O-Go And Thwacker. 

. . .132 

The Cloudburst. 

. . .136 

O-Go And His Mate. 

. . .144 



5 


















LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

O-Go found himself outside the lodge . . FRONTISPIECE 

Then he saw her.43 

He sharpened his teeth on the walnut stock of 

Wallace’s rifle.33 

It felt good to O-Go to be well again.63 

With an angry squawk, she was upon the little beaver . 73 

Ela made the trip time after time.83 

He turned sharply and shot to the surface . ... 99 

A light that was absolutely blinding shone into 

O-Go’s eyes.109 

There was nothing that he could do to free himself . 121 

All that they could do was to keep their noses above 

the surface.139 



7 







FOREWORD 


I LLUSTRATING this book has given me an unusual hap¬ 
piness. There was no need to search for scenes adaptable 
to a translation into the graphic arts, as every line of this 
book seems to breathe life and activity, while the scenic 
descriptions seem to actually send forth the green coolness of 
the beaver’s surroundings. 

By executing the drawings directly on lithographic plates, 
we are using a medium with the widest range of tone values 
in black and white and the greatest accuracy in reproducing 
the slightest pressure of the pencil, which in the ordinary 
photo-engraving process is usually lost. 

As regards the hero of the story, I think that we see our 
beaver in quite a new light. His nocturnal habits and his pro¬ 
tective measure of surrounding his home with deep water has 
made him a stranger to most of us. But, through this book, 
we all of a sudden discover in him a brave and skilled laborer, 
who harms nobody, but sets a fine example through his ability 
and his wonderful attitude toward the tragedies in his life. 

Signed KURT WlESE, 

Frenchtown, New Jersey. 



9 






INTRODUCTION 


T HE DAYS we spend in the forest or beside the stream 
teach us that the creatures of the wild do not lead 
lives of monotonous security. Their days and their 
nights are filled with contest, not only with their 
enemies, but also with the blind forces of Nature. 

In this contest, the survivors are not always the strongest, 
but they are always the ones best fitted to the surroundings 
in which they are placed, or best able to adapt themselves to 
changing conditions. Thus, the tremendous mastodon and the 
ferocious sabre-toothed tiger have long ago departed; while the 
gentle but intelligent beaver has maintained his existence from 
time immemorial down to the present age. 

No animal is more worthy of a place in the scheme of 
things than is the beaver; for, without weapons to defend 
himself against the assaults of fiercer animals, he has managed 
through sheer intelligence to hold his own against all enemies 
except man; and, now that some measure of protection has 
been granted him, he bids fair to remain with us permanently. 

He is not an object of charity. The trees he takes are 
those of least value to the lumberman, and the dams which he 
builds are of real service in flood prevention. His life is a con¬ 
stant struggle, but he faces his difficulties bravely, and usually 
triumphs over them. The purpose of this volume is to show 
how he does this. 

The thanks of the writer are due to Asst. Supt. James 
E. McDade of the Chicago Schools, to Mr. John Nelson of 
Hay Creek, Wisconsin, and to the late Chief Eagle-Feather for 
helpful suggestions in the preparation of this story of O-GO 
and his friends. 

Raymond Kelly, 

Chicago, Illinois. 



11 









O-Go found himself outside the lodge 




O-GO AND HIS FAMILY 


T HE ROCKS and water-logged sticks at 
the bottom of swift-running Patou 
Creek were still coated with crystal, for 
the waters of Patou flowed from high-up 
among the passes of the Big Horn, where it 
was still winter. Even where the creek spread 
out over the floor of Digger’s Glen, it was as 
yet covered with sheet ice, with here and there 
a patch of open water. These patches, in all 
probability, marked the locations of under- 


15 


water springs, and had remained open through 
most of the winter. Now they were daily 
increasing in size, for the frost was slowly 
relaxing its grip. 

Evidences of more kindly weather were to 
be seen along the shore also. There, threads 
of tender green showed themselves among the 
brown grasses, and the hues of the mosses 
were subtly enlivened, sure token of an awak¬ 
ening year. In the aspens, the willows, and 
the birches, which fringed the shores of the 
pond, the sap pulsed daily higher, swelling 
the buds with the promise of a renewed fol¬ 
iage. Even the pines seemed to feel the new 
influence, and to brood less darkly over the 
forest. 

The bear still slept in his winter den, and 
the magpies that chattered from the spruces had 
as yet only the squirrels to answer them, for 
the songsters lingered in the lowlands. Soon, 
however, these too would arrive to fill the 
woods with their melody; for, although the 
nightwind keened shrilly through the forest, 
daytime skies were friendly, and the “honk- 
honk” of northing geese was frequent over the 
valley. 

Of all these changes, however, O-Go, the 
beaver, was ignorant, for like his brother Ilg, 
and his sister Ela, he was only three days old. 
O-Go knew only that there was comfort in 


16 


warmth and in feeding, and that he missed 
his mother, when for a few moments she went 
away from him. O-Go’s eyes were open, and 
had been from the first, yet he saw nothing, 
since daylight never enters a beaver lodge. 

There being no place for light to enter the 
lodge meant, of course, that the air in it was 
unchanged also. But O-Go and his family 
had no objection to re-breathed air, since they 
and their ancestors for untold generations had 
always lived in thick-walled, closely-sealed 
houses. Perhaps though, it is not exactly true 
that the air was not changed at all, as O-Go’s 
mother went in and out through the under¬ 
water entrance at least once or twice daily. 
Anyhow, the fewer openings a house has, the 
less opportunity there is for cold or enemies 
to enter. 

O-Go’s father was not living in the lodge 
that April, but was staying with some other 
males of the colony in a dugout located half 
a mile away at the side of one of the old beaver 
canals. O-Go’s parents were not on bad terms. 
On the contrary, they were very fond of one 
another, and had mated, not for a single sea¬ 
son, but for life. Were either of them to die, 
the other would live the remainder of life in 
loneliness. 

Like many other animals, however, beav¬ 
ers separate when there are very little ones in 


17 


the family, remaining apart for some weeks. 
In the case of meat-eating animals, this is 
easy to understand; the mother fears that the 
father will destroy the young to satisfy his 
own appetite. Beavers, however, eat only 
vegetable matter. Hence, Father Beaver had 
offered no resistance, when his mate had made 
plain to him that his absence was requested, 
but had gone quietly to join those others who 
had received like hints from their mates. 

This absence of the males of the colony 
from their home lodges left the mothers with 
the full care of the young. But, since these 
lived entirely upon milk for their first few 
weeks, that care was no great burden. All 
that the mother had to do was to provide 
herself with sufficient food, a task made easy 
by the pile of brush and sticks, which lay 
under water only a few yards from her door. 

Nor did their absence leave Father Beaver 
and his two friends, Shovel-Tail and Chisel- 
Tooth, to a life of idleness. No, indeed; they 
had plenty to do, for, since they had turned 
over to the mothers what was left of the 
winter’s supplies, they had to forage for their 
food. They dived deep down into the pond 
for the potato-like lily roots, swam to the dam 
for young willow shoots, and even journeyed 
inland a short way to dine on the inner bark 
of poplar saplings. 


18 


Then, too, they had a certain amount of 
work to do on the dam, which had at some 
points been weakened by the pressure of the 
winter’s ice. Such places they strengthened 
with sticks, which they plastered into posi¬ 
tion with mud brought up from the bottom 
of the pond. Their tools for this work were 
their hand-like forepaws. With these they 
packed the mud as tightly as need be and 
patted it smooth in a workmanlike manner. 
They performed all their tasks in a silence as 
deep as that of the night that surrounded 
them; yet they seemed never to hesitate, never 
to blunder, never to get in one another’s way. 

Mother Beaver and the other females of 
the colony could have worked on the dam 
with as much skill as was shown by their 
mates. But their entire time and thought, 
during those weeks, was given to their help¬ 
less young ones. Mother Beaver, for exam¬ 
ple, hated to leave O-Go, Ilg, and Ela even 
for the short time necessary to get her dinner 
from the storage pile. Indeed on her return 
to the lodge, she swam faster and faster, fairly 
bursting through the water that blocked the 
entrance to the home tunnel, as if thinking 
to herself, “Just suppose that something had 
happened to those three wonderful babies, 
while I have been away!” 


19 



FIRST EXPLORATIONS 


4T THIS time O-Go, Ilg, and Ela were 
/\ no larger than very young kittens, and 
1 % were equally as helpless. They had as 

yet little or no use of their legs, but sprawled 
weakly beside their mother, conscious only of 
the need for almost continuous feeding. When 
they were not eating, they slept. When they 
were not sleeping, they ate, and those two 
activities made up the whole of their lives. 
As a result of so much food and so little move- 


20 




ment, the young beavers grew at an astonish¬ 
ing rate, and by the end of their fifth week 
were as large as collie puppies of that age. 

They were as fat as any puppies, too, and 
even clumsier, for their legs developed con¬ 
siderably more slowly than did their bodies. 
Had there been opportunity for such a thing, 
they would have been as friendly as puppies 
also, as nothing had as yet happened to teach 
them the lesson of fear. 

For a while now, they had added play to 
their list of activities, and had had a glorious 
time, not caring at all when they happened 
to roll into the tunnel, but scrambling out at 
once to resume their sport. Mother Beaver 
played with them, and was better at the game 
than they were, for when it was her turn to 
be chased, she could dive down the tunnel 
and come up outside. 

A dozen or more times this happened. Then 
in his eagerness in the game, O-Go followed 
right after her, and found himself outside the 
lodge and swimming in the cold water of 
Patou Pond. But the water did not seem cold 
to O-Go, because the thick, soft fur beneath 
his coarse outer hair kept out all the damp 
and chill. For a few moments he swam beside 
his mother. Then, as she returned to the lodge, 
he dived after her, not yet caring to be out 
alone. It had been a real adventure for O-Go 


21 


to take that first swim, and Mother Beaver 
showed plainly that she was proud of him. 

She had reason for her pride, since it was 
through their play that she must teach her 
little ones all those things that they needed to 
know. This seems to be the way of all four- 
footed animals in the training of their young. 
Baby wolves play at fighting, or worry a 
small piece of fur, and so do young lynxes 
and foxes. For such games as those, however, 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela had no need. This was be¬ 
cause beavers do not learn to fight or to hunt, 
since their food is all vegetable, and their ref¬ 
uge is the water. But they must learn while 
very young all that is to be known about 
diving and swimming. 

Mother Beaver, therefore, went seriously to 
work to teach Ilg and Ela the lesson that 
O-Go had already learned. Time and again 
she went out through the tunnel, followed by 
O-Go. Time and again she returned, until 
Ilg too, finally grasped the lesson and would 
follow her. But Ela, for some reason or other, 
seemed to be too timid to do as did the others, 
so her mother was forced to use sterner meas¬ 
ures. She first crowded Ela slowly down the 
long, sloping tunnel, and then half pushed, 
half carried her through its water-filled portion. 

For a moment after coming to the surface, 
Ela was still terribly frightened. But Mother 


22 


Beaver stayed close beside her until she was 
rid of her fear and was swimming quietly be¬ 
side Ilg and O-Go. Then Mother Beaver re¬ 
turned to the lodge, and Ela, who didn’t want 
to be left all alone, followed behind the others. 
The next time was easier, for though Ela was 
still reluctant, she knew that she must obey. 
The lesson had been a hard one for Ela, but 
she had learned it. Thereafter, she left and 
entered the lodge as fearlessly as did her two 
brothers. 

Mother Beaver was greatly pleased with all 
three of her little ones because of the quick¬ 
ness with which they had learned how to use 
the door of the lodge. In order that they 
might not forget that lesson, she made them 
practice it over and over again, until they were 
able to go straight to the door from any point 
within twenty feet of it. She knew that it 
was very important for them to be able to 
do this in time of danger, for a beaver must 
be able to dive quickly and to swim well un¬ 
der water, if he is to escape his enemies. 

This ability to escape from enemies is, of 
course, important to all the creatures of the 
wild, but few of the others are so dependent 
upon it as is the beaver. Those others, as a 
rule, are able to defend themselves at least a 
little, but the beaver can not do so at all, for 
he has no weapons, since his teeth are not made 


23 


for tearing flesh and his hand-like forefeet 
have only the weakest of claws. 

O-Go loved to use that door. It was fine 
to feel the water close about him, as he swam 
swiftly through the lower reaches of the tun¬ 
nel, fine to be borne quickly to the surface, 
when he slowed the action of his strong hind 
legs; and finest of all to lie contentedly at 
the top, with only his face above water. O-Go 
would remain still for many minutes, breath¬ 
ing the soft spring air, and listening to the 
gentle breeze that barely ruffled the surface 
of the pond. It was a pleasant world for little 
beavers. 

O-Go’s world was one of many beauties 
also. In its farthest distance were the great 
peaks of the Rockies, where the snow lingered 
on into the summer, gleaming white under 
the sunshine, rich with blue in the shadows. 
Then there were the intervening forests, with 
mile after mile of virgin timber, stately pines, 
hemlocks and spruces on the uplands, but 
birches, aspens and poplars lower down near 
the water, ready for the use of the beavers. 

The pond itself, formed partly by nature, 
partly by the dam which O-Go’s ancestors had 
built, was beautiful also, its waters green in 
the shallows, blue-black in those deeper places 
where the trout and the grayling loved to 
lurk. Then, too, there were the pond lilies, 


24 


with their broad, green, purple-splashed leaves 
and in season, their wondrous white and gold 
blossoms. 

That is the way O-Go’s world looked by 
daylight. But when he was first led out into 
it, there were only the long shadows of the 
trees and the reflection of the stars in the wa¬ 
ter, for it was night on Patou Pond. 



25 


A NEW LESSON 



O GO, Ilg, and Ela slept long and sound¬ 
ly after each trip into the open, for 
they were still very young, and there¬ 
fore tired easily. Nevertheless, they were al¬ 
ways ready to go again when the next even¬ 
ing arrived, and Mother Beaver led them out 
through their underwater door. Before she 
did this, however, Mother Beaver first went 
out alone, in order that she might carefully 
look over the neighborhood and make cer- 


26 




tain that no enemy lay in waiting. She knew 
well that, although beavers never eat meat, 
there are many animals who do so, and that 
to such creatures a baby beaver is the very 
choicest of meals. 

The fact that her examination never re¬ 
vealed the presence of any harmful thing did 
not cause Mother Beaver to grow careless. 
She made that trial trip every evening. Then, 
certain that all was safe, she returned to lead 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela out through the tunnel 
and up to the surface of the pond. There 
they played at tag and follow-the-leader, each 
game making them stronger and therefore able 
to swim farther. To them, it was all play for 
play’s sake, but to Mother Beaver it was a 
part of their education, and she watched their 
development with keen satisfaction. Soon, she 
knew, they would be ready to go farther from 
home. 

After some days of this sort of exercise, 
Mother Beaver was convinced that the time 
had arrived, when it would be safe to make 
a real journey with her young ones. That 
evening, therefore, she did not permit them 
to tire themselves with play, but led them 
straight away from the door of the lodge to¬ 
ward the great dam, which swept in a long, 
gentle curve across the mouth of the pond. 
As they travelled, she swam, now in front of 


27 


them, now behind them, now at their side, 
keeping them close together. They were hers, 
and she was determined not to lose any of 
them. 

When they reached the dam, O-Go, Ilg, 
and Ela had their first outdoors meal, for 
Mother Beaver brought down one of the slen¬ 
der aspen saplings, which had sprung up from 
live wood built into the earthwork. The sweet 
and tender inside bark of that young tree was 
very tasty indeed to O-Go, and he gnawed 
lustily at it, as did Ilg and Ela also. But right 
in the middle of their meal, Mother Beaver 
suddenly hit the water a tremendous thwack 
with her tail, and slipped quickly beneath the 
surface of the pond, to come up many feet 
away from shore. There she lay quietly, with 
only her eyes and nose above water. 

O-Go, Ilg, and Ela did not know what to 
make of such peculiar conduct. They stopped 
eating, and waited anxiously for their mother 
to return to them, but this she did not do. 
Therefore, as they were not at all accustomed 
to being separated from her, and as it was 
plain that she did not intend to come back to 
them, they joined her in the water. As soon 
as they had done this, she again led them 
back to their abandoned dinner, but let them 
eat for only a few minutes. Then, “thwack”. 
Once more she slapped the water and dived. 


28 


This time, the little beavers did not wait 
so long before coming to the side of their 
mother, for they sensed that they must do 
this. She would not come to them. A third 
and a fourth time Mother Beaver repeated this, 
and then all of a sudden, O-Go guessed the 
secret. The thwack was a signal that his moth¬ 
er was about to dive. Very well! The next 
time, he would dive when she did. “Thwack!” 
There was the signal, and instantly O-Go was 
in the water, and following his mother away 
from the dam. 

Two or three times more, as they plunged, 
O-Go and his mother left the others well be¬ 
hind them, but at last all three of the little 
beavers knew the signal, and would dive as 
soon as it was given. Their learning this lesson 
relieved Mother Beaver of one of the worst of 
her worries, since many times in the life of 
each of them, it would be necessary to dive at 
the first hint of danger. To fail to heed a warn¬ 
ing at such a time as that might mean for them 
death or terrible injury. Thus, O-Go, Ilg, and 
Ela had increased their chances of long life 
through learning the meaning of tail-thwack¬ 
ing. 

There was another method of signalling the 
nearness of danger, and that was by means of 
a sharp, quick whistle. It was necessary for the 
beavers to have this second means of warning, 


29 


because there were likely to be occasions when 
there was neither water nor soft mud right at 
hand. Without one of those two things, of 
course, tail-thwacking would not give a sound 
loud enough to be counted upon. So Mother 
Beaver had one more lesson to give on the art of 
escaping the enemy. But that lesson she saved 
for another evening. 

On that evening, Ilg was, as before, always 
the last to dive. This was not because of any 
stupidity on Ilg’s part, but was due to his 
greediness. He simply could not bear to leave 
the sapling without one or two more bites of 
that delicious young bark. This would not do 
at all. Ilg must do as the others did. Mother 
Beaver tried again and again, but still the 
greedy little fellow was always tardy. Then, 
her patience exhausted, she thwacked him, and 
after that Ilg did a little better. However, it 
was plainly to be seen that he would never be 
as good at answering signals as were O-Go 
and Ela. 

With all this work at learning the new signal 
and becoming letter perfect at the old one, 
the three little beavers grew very tired indeed. 
Therefore they were glad, when Mother Beaver 
ceased her instruction, and allowed them to 
settle down in earnest to their meal of aspen 
bark. O-Go, for one, felt that he had had 
enough of diving to last him for a long while. 


30 


O-Go changed his mind about that, how¬ 
ever, when right beside him, he discovered a 
strange beaver, who was even larger than his 
mother. O-Go didn’t wait for any signal. He 
gave one himself, and immediately dived into 
the pond, with Ilg and Ela close after him. 
Mother Beaver also dived in order to impress 
upon her young ones the importance of obey¬ 
ing the danger signal. To Mother Beaver, 
though, the newcomer was no stranger, but 
her mate. Father Beaver had returned to his 
family. 

For a time, the three young beavers remained 
in the water, watching their parents from a safe 
distance. Then, slowly and cautiously, they 
swam back to the dam, and returned to their 
interrupted meal. 

Gradually, they became accustomed to the 
presence of their father, and even began to feel 
that they knew him. Finally, swimming in 
single file with Father Beaver in the lead, and 
Mother Beaver bringing up the rear, all five 
returned to the lodge that nestled among the 
willows. 



31 



THE LILY COVE 

T HE pond lilies would not bloom for 
some weeks. But their leaves, dark 
green with splashes of purple and 
brown, were thick in the little cove at the far 
side of Patou Pond. Thither then, went Father 
Beaver, Mother Beaver, and all three of their 
little ones, to find on their arrival that the 
whole colony had taken the same notion. Over 
twenty beavers were there that evening. 

Such an occurrence would not have been in 


32 






any way remarkable a hundred and fifty years 
earlier; then, beaver colonies had been both 
larger and more numerous than they are to¬ 
day. Now, however, such a gathering was an 
event so rare that probably even the oldest 
beaver on Patou had never before seen, at one 
time, so many of his kind. 

The fact of the matter was, that the colony 
had been increased, not only by the birth of 
young in three of its six lodges, but also by 
immigration. The immigrants, two in number, 
had come to the pond from another stream, one 
that lay beyond a series of ridges nearly thirty 
miles in extent. The newcomers to Patou had 
been routed from their former home by a series 
of misfortunes so severe and so long-continued 
that they had at last lost courage, and had 
determined to abandon their home. 

In the first place, all of the young born to 
their colony the previous year had been carried 
away, one at a time, by a pair of lynxes, which 
had haunted the shores of their home to lie in 
wait for the unwary. Then a fall freshet of 
great violence had so badly damaged their dam 
as to make it unlikely that so small a colony 
could ever put it in proper repair. To complete 
their trouble, two trappers, working in defiance 
of the law, had come into that region, and had 
taken a dozen pelts before being discovered 
and arrested by the outraged forest rangers. 


33 


It was, therefore not to be wondered at, 
that the two survivors of that terrible year had 
left their home waters, and made their way 
across country to join their more fortunate 
relatives living on Patou. The journey had 
been full of danger, for the major part of it 
had had to be made on land. Therefore, it had 
lasted for many nights. However, the two 
beavers, wise in the ways of the forest, had 
escaped every peril, and had at length reached 
their destination, tired but unharmed. 

They had been made welcome in their new 
home, being received as though they had al¬ 
ways lived there, and had merely returned from 
a visit. There was at present no lodge for them, 
but there were several dugouts along the bank 
of one of the old beaver canals. In one of these 
the two had taken up their residence and would 
remain there for the present. Later on the whole 
colony would unite in building a lodge for 
their permanent home. Therefore the new ar¬ 
rivals had nothing to worry them, but could 
enjoy themselves with the others. 

There was a small strip of beach at the cove, 
and with its sand, hard-packed by the rain of 
the previous night, made a delightful place 
for all the young beavers. It was just suited to 
their play, and they entertained themselves 
delightfully, while their elders made excursions 
to the bottom of the pond for the luscious lily 


34 


roots. Not all of the elders took part in this 
work however, for there must always be some¬ 
one on guard. 

This task fell that evening to O-Go’s great- 
uncle—Castor, the oldest and wisest of all the 
beavers on Patou. He knew all the scents of 
the neighborhood, and could sort them out, 
even when, as often happened, they came, not 
singly but several at one time. Uncle Castor 
ignored the odors of all harmless creatures, such 
as old Snow-shoe, the giant hare, merely sniff¬ 
ing carefully in order to make certain that the 
friendly smell did not mask that of some 
enemy a trifle farther off. Then he gave no 
further notice to Snow-shoe. 

That was not the manner in which Uncle 
Castor acted, when his sensitive nostrils caught 
even the faintest whiff of coyote odor. When 
that occurred, the wise old fellow immediately 
thwacked the water with his broad, flat tail. 
Then, without pausing a second, he plunged 
beneath the surface of the pond, and every 
beaver in the colony followed his example. 
Beavers always obey without hesitation such 
orders from a sentinel; for it is better to heed 
a dozen false alarms than to fail to respond to 
one true one. The law of the forest is, “Be 
quick, lest you be dead.” 

However, false alarms were very unlikely to 
occur, when the sentinel was Uncle Castor. He 


35 


knew his trade far too well for that. There¬ 
fore, the colony had but little interruption that 
evening, as the most of their enemies were hunt¬ 
ing elsewhere. As they had so much time, the 
feast of lily roots was bountiful, and O-Go, 
Ilg, and Ela could eat this new food to their 
hearts’ content. 

They played too, using all the games which 
Mother Beaver had taught them, and became 
acquainted with all of their cousins from the 
other lodges. The crowd was much like a large 
group of frolicsome and friendly puppies, and, 
but for their broad, flat, scaly-looking tails, an 
onlooker might have thought that that was 
what they were. 

Fun and food were both excellent, and 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela did not have to learn to 
like the pond lily roots, but enjoyed them from 
the first mouthful. So all in all, it was a won¬ 
derful evening, with everyone eating his fill. 
Even Uncle Castor was not left out of the 
feast, for Father Beaver took a turn at being 
sentry, while the old fellow dined on the food 
the others had gathered and had saved for him. 

At length, the going-away signal was given, 
and all but one of the beavers started to swim 
toward home. The one who remained behind 
was O-Go, who had eaten so much and had 
played so hard that he had dropped off to sleep 
in the shadow of a bush that grew close to the 


36 


water. Such conduct would not have been so 
surprising in Ilg as it was in O-Go, for Ilg 
always ate too much. But O-Go had never 
failed to obey every signal and Mother Beaver 
was therefore greatly surprised, when on reach¬ 
ing the lodge she found him missing. She 
started immediately to hunt for him, leaving 
Ilg and Ela in the care of Father Beaver. 

In far less time than it had taken her to get 
home, Mother Beaver was back at the lily cove. 
There she hunted high and low for the little 
fellow, finding easily enough the place where he 
had eaten, the place where he had lain down to 
sleep and the point at which he had entered the 
water. But O-Go himself she could not find. 
However, there was no scent of any enemy 
about the place, and, taking what comfort she 
could from that fact, Mother Beaver returned 
home again. Perhaps O-Go would be there 
before her. 



37 



O-GO’S FIRST ENEMY 

O -GO’S sleep was not a long one. In fact 
it was just long enough to permit the 
others to get well started for home 
before he awoke. This was unfortunate for 
him, for had he slept another half-hour, his 
mother would have found him on her return 
to the lily cove. As it was, O-Go waked to find 
himself all alone under the hazel bush. It took 
him some minutes to realize his predicament. 
His mother must be somewhere nearby, thought 


38 




O-Go, and he ambled down to the water’s 
edge, still hoping to find her. Beaver smell was 
everywhere, but of beavers there was none 
except O-Go himself. 

O-Go whimpered once or twice; that had 
always brought his mother hurrying to see 
what might be the matter. This time, however, 
whimpering did not work at all, for Mother 
Beaver was not there to hear him. She was still 
nearly half a mile away, having just started 
on her search for the little fellow. O-Go whim¬ 
pered again, by now really frightened. He 
was deserted, and the thought of that sent 
his whole world tumbling about his ears. 
Nothing is so frightening to any young crea¬ 
ture as the feeling of being abandoned. 

O-Go sat up, as Uncle Castor had done when 
on guard, and sniffed the air; but he could 
make nothing of the many odors that came 
to his nostrils. He listened. All that he heard 
was the rustle of the grasses and the gentle rip¬ 
pling of the water, as the night breeze passed 
by. Again he listened. He could hear faintly 
the soft, slapping noise of the lily pads, as the 
wavelets caressed them. But what was that 
queer sound in the bushes behind him? 

It was only the faint twittering of some 
small bird, disturbed in its slumber, or per¬ 
haps dreaming. But O-Go’s heart was tuned 
to fear, and it beat furiously at that terrible 


39 


noise. Then, the fat little beaver plunged 
headlong into the water, and swam desper¬ 
ately, until lack of breath forced him to the 
surface. He must get away from that awful 
place at once. 

O-Go’s fright had been a fortunate one, for, 
while he was still under water, a great white 
owl, as fierce as any eagle, swept low over the 
spot which he had just left. Those talons and 
that hooked beak would have made short work 
of any small beaver that they encountered. 
Perhaps the twittering bird had sensed the ap¬ 
proach of that enemy, and had unwittingly 
communicated its alarm to O-Go. It is in such 
manner that squirrels very often warn the deer 
of the approaching hunter. 

At any rate, O-Go was now in the cool water 
of the beaver pond, swimming, he hoped, to¬ 
wards home. In reality, however, he was going 
in quite a wrong direction. As he swam, he 
passed within a hundred yards of his mother, 
but as both travelled silently, and as odors do 
not carry far over water, neither was aware 
of the other. 

Thus it came about that, while Mother 
Beaver was frantically searching the shore for 
O-Go, he was climbing out of the water at 
a point almost as far from home as that from 
which he had started. And while Mother Beav¬ 
er was sadly returning to the lodge, O-Go was 


40 




again dropping off to sleep, this time beside 
a log that lay close to the water on the north 
shore of Patou Pond. 

When next he waked, the dawn had come, 
though the sun would not show his face for 
yet another hour. O-Go was cold despite his 
thick fur, for this was the first time he had 
slept out of doors, or without the close com¬ 
fort of his mother, and of Ilg and Ela. He 
was hungry, too, for his was a stomach that 
required almost constant filling to meet the 
demands of his rapid growth. 

O-Go looked about him for food, but could 
find nothing. The trees at that point were all 
lodgepole pines, their outer bark harsh and 
rough, their inner bark too bitter and resinous 
to suit the palate of any beaver. A few lily 
plants grew not far from shore, but O-Go 
had not yet learned to find bottom and bring 
up the succulent roots, which would have made 
him so fine a breakfast. It looked as though 
he must get along with only a drink of water. 

The light was each moment getting stronger, 
too, and that also bothered O-Go, for he had 
never before been out of the lodge except at 
night. Back in the woods there was shadow 
a-plenty, and many sorts of food as well, but 
O-Go did not know that. It was fortunate 
for him that he did not go there, for had he 
done so, he would have fallen straight into 


41 


the jaws of a wily old coyote, who lay watch¬ 
ing him. 

Just as the coyote, convinced that O-Go was 
really as defenseless as he seemed, gathered her¬ 
self to rush him, the little beaver caught scent 
of her. He didn’t understand that odor, but 
it was strange to him, and its strangeness was 
frightening. Then he saw her, and his fear 
passed all bounds. There was no escape open 
to him, for the coyote was almost as near at 
hand as was the water, and her speed was many 
times that of which O-Go was capable. 

O-Go was entirely defenseless; yet the thing 
he did probably saved his life. Just as the coyote 
was almost upon him, the little beaver sat 
straight up, placing his fore paws above his 
head. It was the sort of motion that he might 
have made in the effort to ward off the blow 
of a club. The position was an utterly useless 
one against such an enemy as the coyote, but 
the change to it did take him partly out of 
the line of her charge. 

So great was her speed that the coyote was 
unable to change direction. She passed by 
O-Go, slashing him cruelly with her fangs 
on the way. Then, unable to check herself in 
time, she was carried by the force of her rush, 
into the water. Snarling furiously because of 
the unexpected wetting, the coyote turned to 
renew her attack upon O-Go, who lay half- 


42 







jb*s 


Then he saw her 




















stunned and entirely helpless on the shore. It 
seemed a certainty that in another minute he 
must perish and be carried off as food for the 
coyote’s pups; and such, indeed, would have 
been his fate, had it not been for a sudden 
interruption. 

That interruption was the wild, “Yip, yip, 
yip-eeeh,” shouted by Wallace, the forest 
ranger, who had happened upon the scene. At 
its echoing sound, the coyote forgot all about 
O-Go, and intent only upon safety, tore 
through the undergrowth and away from the 
beaver pond. 



45 



RANGER WALLACE 

W ALLACE, the ranger, dismount¬ 
ed, drawing the bridle reins over 
his pony’s head, and allowing 
them to trail upon the ground as a “blind 
halter.” Then, as rapidly as the roughness of 
the going permitted, he made his way through 
the timber, toward the point where O-Go 
lay. The trip consumed at least ten minutes, 
although the distance travelled was not much 
over two hundred yards; for the hillside was 


46 


steep, and was strewn with wind-fallen tim¬ 
ber. 

The ranger found O-Go still living, but so 
completely unconscious that, at first glance, he 
seemed to be dead. A more careful examina¬ 
tion, however, made it clear to Wallace that, 
although terribly wounded, the little beaver 
was still breathing. Accordingly the young 
man set to work to save him, if such a thing 
might be possible. 

“Maybe we can patch you up, and maybe 
not, young fellow,” said Wallace, as he seated 
himself on a log, and took out his first aid 
kit. “At least, it will do no harm to try it.” 
Then, taking the little beaver onto his lap, he 
took two or three stitches to close the wound. 
The pain caused by these brought O-Go back 
to consciousness, and he struggled feebly to 
escape; but finding the effort useless, he gave 
up and submitted to the ranger’s rough kind¬ 
ness without further protest. 

As he finished his task of bandaging O-Go, 
Wallace glanced over the water, noting with 
surprise that from a short distance out in the 
pond, two grown beavers were gravely watch¬ 
ing him. Of course he had known all the 
while that there was a colony of beavers on 
Patou, but this morning was the first time that 
he had ever been able to see any of them, 
though he had many times tried to do so. 


47 


The two beavers whom Wallace now ob¬ 
served, were the pair that had recently come 
into the colony. They had heard the little 
cry of distress, given by O-Go as the coyote 
struck him, and had come to see whether there 
was anything that they could do to aid him. 
The presence of Wallace had prevented them 
from landing, but they had remained to watch. 
Now, seeing that they were observed, they at 
once sank beneath the surface, to come up 
many yards away. 

“It’s all right, folks,’’ Wallace cried gaily. 
“I’ll take good care of this young fellow, and 
will bring him home to you as soon as he is 
well enough to travel.” Then, cradling O-Go 
in his arm, he turned away from the shore, 
pleased to pretend that the adult beavers had 
received and understood his message. The way 
back over the windfall was a hard one, for, 
with O-Go to carry, Wallace had the use of 
only one hand in climbing. But the ranger 
met the difficulty without complaint, using 
every effort to avoid hurting the little beaver. 

When he had reached the trail, Wallace was 
confronted with a new problem, for his horse, 
smelling the blood from O-Go’s wound, be¬ 
came alarmed, and at first would not permit 
the ranger to mount. Wallace, therefore, took 
the reins in his free hand, and led the animal 
along the trail for about a half mile, talking 


48 


soothingly as he went. By this time, the horse 
had calmed sufficiently to allow the young 
man to climb into the saddle, and the remain¬ 
ing four miles of the journey were travelled 
without incident, for O-Go lay quite still un¬ 
til they had reached the cabin. 

There, Wallace deposited O-Go on a folded 
horse blanket, and brought him a tin plate 
filled with water. O-Go didn’t know what 
to make of that, but, after Wallace had gently 
pushed his nose into the liquid, he drank greed¬ 
ily, for already his wound was giving him a 
touch of fever. Then O-Go went to sleep, to 
awake after a few hours, weak and sore. The 
raw potato, which Wallace offered to him, was 
a dish fit for a veritable king of beavers; but 
O-Go was too sick to eat it. 

However, O-Go again drank freely. There¬ 
fore, Wallace was sure that, although he had 
had a close call, the little fellow was going 
to recover. Yet, for four days, O-Go contin¬ 
ued to be unable to eat, and Wallace began 
to fear that he had been over-optimistic in 
his belief that his guest would get well. But, 
on the fifth day, O-Go was undeniably bet¬ 
ter, and showed it by gnawing bravely at the 
potato, which Wallace held for him. There¬ 
after, his improvement was so rapid that a 
week later he was exploring the whole cabin 

O-Go was an affectionate little creature, as 


49 


well as an intelligent one. While Wallace was 
changing or arranging his bandages, he would 
remain perfectly motionless, as though under¬ 
standing that help was being given to him. He 
would lie contentedly for an hour on the ran¬ 
ger’s knees, while the latter read a book, and 
would even come, begging to be taken up. It 
was clear that he had given the man his com¬ 
plete trust. 



50 



HOME AGAIN 


P ERHAPS, the two beavers, who had seen 
O-Go carried away by the ranger, were 
able to let his parents know about the 
matter. Perhaps, Mother Beaver continued to 
mourn for him, though it is possible that she 
almost at once forgot all about him. At any 
rate, she soon ceased to hunt for O-Go, and 
devoted all her time and attention to the care 
and feeding of Ilg and Ela. Ela was very 
little bother to her mother, but Ilg was a 


51 



problem; he simply would not learn to answer 
signals promptly. 

Both of Ilg’s parents worked steadily at 
the task of teaching him, and in time, they 
succeeded in getting him to do somewhat bet¬ 
ter; still Ilg’s laziness and greed made him al¬ 
ways the last into the water. He was unkind 
to Ela, too, for he was continually taking from 
her the things she was given to eat. When Ilg 
did this, Ela made no protest; she let him take 
her food, and went in search of more. 

Meanwhile, in the cabin on the hilltop, 
O-Go was daily becoming stronger and more 
active. He had come to regard his new friend as 
the giver of all good things; and the ranger 
did not disappoint him, but tried in every 
way possible to please his little guest. A for¬ 
est ranger’s life is, at best, a lonely one, and 
an affectionate pet is a great help towards 
making that loneliness bearable. Therefore, 
Wallace took great pains in caring for O-Go, 
travelling long distances to secure for him the 
choicest green shoots of willow, birch and 
poplar. 

No such trees grew in the neighborhood of 
the cabin. The trees at that altitude were all 
of the evergreen type, and their bark was bit¬ 
ter, because of its strong infusion of pitch and 
of turpentine. Only in case of absolute neces¬ 
sity, would any beaver eat food of that sort. 


52 



He sharpened his teeth on the walnut stock 
of Wallace's rifle 









In spite of the work of providing O-Go 
with food, Wallace would have liked to keep 
him permanently. O-Go himself however 
helped protect the young man from this temp¬ 
tation to break the law. He did this by be¬ 
coming somewhat of a nuisance about the 
place. He became each day more curious about 
his surroundings, and in the course of his in¬ 
vestigations did considerable damage. 

On one occasion, the little beaver knocked 
over the flour canister, and trailed the white 
powder all over the cabin. Another time, he 
sharpened his rapidly-growing, chisel-like teeth 
on the walnut stock of Wallace’s rifle. The 
wood was too hard to suit O-Go, and he did 
not like the flavor of its varnish. Therefore, 
he did not chew at it for a very long time, 
and the gun butt escaped absolute destruction. 
But it would never again be the thing of beauty 
that it had been before O-Go worked on it. 

Wallace gazed ruefully at the damaged gun, 
wondering if O-Go hadn’t a little overstayed 
his welcome. Then he laughed and forgave 
the little fellow, for he realized that O-Go 
had only followed the demands of his nature 
and that there had been no malice in the mis¬ 
chief he had done. The ranger was determined, 
however, that O-Go should have no further 
opportunity to do harm. Accordingly, before 
next leaving the cabin, he carefully placed out 


55 


of reach every article which he thought that 
O-Go might be able to injure. 

Wallace might as well have omitted this 
labor, for it was entirely wasted. O-Go chewed 
through one leg of the rustic, three-cornered 
table, narrowly escaping death in the result¬ 
ing crash. The table had been piled high with 
the ranger's goods, and their clatter as they 
cascaded to the floor, so frightened the little 
beaver that he took refuge under the bed. There 
he remained until at length he felt certain 
that the table would not again attack him. 
Then he came out to examine the various ar¬ 
ticles scattered over the floor. 

The canned goods did not greatly interest 
O-Go, but the potatoes did. O-Go approved 
of potatoes, and had never had as many of 
them as he would have liked. But on this oc¬ 
casion, there seemed to be a limitless supply 
of the delightful vegetable, and he went brave¬ 
ly to work at eating them. Those which he 
could not eat, he nibbled a little, neither know¬ 
ing nor caring that his actions were dooming 
his friend to a diet of bacon, beans and canned 
goods for the next three weeks. 

It was nearly midnight, when Wallace re¬ 
turned. He was tired and dusty, and his throat 
was raw from smoke, for he had been miles 
away from the cabin, helping to extinguish a 
stubborn brush fire. It was, therefore, no won- 


56 


der that the ranger saw no humor in the sight 
he saw, when he opened his door. Loneliness 
is a hardship, but so too is a guest who makes 
free with one’s property. Wallace was con¬ 
vinced that O-Go's parents needed him. 

Nevertheless, the young ranger knew that 
he would miss O-Go, for the little fellow had 
been fine company during leisure hours. Thus, 
it was with feelings of mingled sorrow and 
relief, that he started for Patou the next morn¬ 
ing, with O-Go on the saddle before him. He 
knew the exact location of the beaver lodges, 
and rode to that part of the pond, walking 
his horse all the way. 

There, he set O-Go down, patted him in fare¬ 
well, and started away; but O-Go had no de¬ 
sire to be deserted, and followed as well as 
his ridiculously short legs would let him. 
Thereupon, Wallace again took him up and 
carried him back to the shore, this time plac¬ 
ing him in the water. O-Go promptly scram¬ 
bled out, and again followed his friend. Half 
amused, half annoyed, Wallace once more 
picked up O-Go, cuffed him soundly, and 
again placed him in the water. Then the ranger 
went away at a run, and did not glance 
back, until he had hidden himself behind a 
tree. He watched from this place and, by the 
aid of his field-glass, he was able to make 
out a grown beaver swimming toward the 


57 


little one. Then, feeling lonely but righteous, 
he mounted his horse and rode slowly off. 

The grown beaver who had found O-Go 
was his mother. Apparently, she knew him, 
and was glad to have him at home once more, 
though she was much annoyed by the man 
smell, which, in spite of her constant curry¬ 
ing, clung to O-Go for days. 



58 



A NEW LODGE 


T HE TWO newcomers who had joined 
the colony on Patou Pond, had thus 
far been without any permanent home, 
and had used the dugout on the old canal as 
a temporary dwelling place. If there had not 
been this spare lodge for them, they would 
have been received into one of the lodges, for 
beavers good-naturedly share their quarters 
during an emergency. When the emergency is 
over, each beaver family seeks, as a rule, to 


59 


live alone, although occasionally they build 
very large lodges, and such lodges are clearly 
intended for the use of more than one family. 

There are cases, too, where a family of beav¬ 
ers lives year after year in a dugout, and it 
is probable that the one on the old canal had 
once been so used. It was, however, for sev¬ 
eral reasons no longer a suitable home. In 
the first place, the canal on which it was situ¬ 
ated led into a portion of the woods that no 
longer contained many trees of a sort useful 
as beaver food. 

Because of this fact, the Patou colony had 
not bothered to clean out that canal in recent 
years. Therefore, the dirt washed in from its 
banks had gradually raised the floor of the 
canal, until it was in some places, almost above 
water. Thus, any beaver who crossed one of 
these places, was exposed to attack. Further¬ 
more, he had the inconvenience of carrying, 
instead of pushing, his food stick. 

The dugout was also defective in another 
way. Some years earlier, a wind storm, in pass¬ 
ing through that part of the woods, had up¬ 
rooted a dead tree; and in its fall, the tree had 
thrust the broken stub of a branch through 
the roof of the little cave. At the time, this 
had done no particular harm, as the branch 
plugged fairly well the hole which it had made. 
But the passing seasons, with their rains and 


60 


their melting snows, had enlarged the hole. It 
was a menace now to any beavers living in 
the place, for their scent was wafted into the 
outside air. 

This meant, of course, that any wolf or 
coyote, who happened into the neighborhood, 
would be more than likely to pick up that 
tell-tale odor. In that event, there would fol¬ 
low a spell of rapid digging on the part of the 
enemy. If the beavers happened to be at home 
when this occurred, they would have ample 
time to escape through their tunnel. But, if 
they were away at that time, they would al¬ 
most certainly return, only to fall into the 
jaws of their waiting destroyer. 

There would be no hope of escape for a 
beaver thus taken by surprise. He cannot run, 
since on land he is exceedingly clumsy in his 
movements. He cannot fight, because he has 
neither fangs nor sharp claws. His only refuge 
is the water. Let him be cut off from that, 
and he is completely at the mercy of any beast 
fierce enough to attack him. It is plain, then, 
that there were plenty of reasons for building 
a new lodge. 

It is probable that the work of building 
would have been started in May, instead of 
July, had it not been for two circumstances. 
At the earlier date, Mother Beaver and two 
of her neighbors had been exceedingly busy 


61 


with the care of very young families, and the 
other members of the colony had been mak¬ 
ing some necessary repairs on the dam. Per¬ 
haps, the latter work might have been al¬ 
lowed to wait, but it is certain that neither 
Mother Beaver nor her friends would have 
left their little ones to shift for themselves for 
a moment. 

All reasons for delay were now out of the 
way. The dam was in perfect repair; the most- 
used canals had been cleared of all obstruc¬ 
tions; and a new spillway had been dug to 
take care of any sudden freshet. All these 
things were important. But there was one 
matter that was more so: O-Go, Ilg, and Ela, 
together with their young cousins, were al¬ 
most three months old. Therefore they were 
no longer dependent on the constant attention 
of their mothers. 

There must be some manner in which beav¬ 
ers can communicate their thoughts to one 
another, although what that manner is re¬ 
mains a mystery. Nevertheless, when the day 
for starting the new lodge arrived, every beaver 
on Patou was on hand, and seemed to know 
just what part he or she was to take in the 
task. 

If there was any foreman in charge of the 
work, it was probably Uncle Castor, as he 
was the oldest, and therefore presumably the 


62 


wisest beaver in all the colony. However, not 
even the closest observer has ever been able to 
tell which beaver was in charge of any par¬ 
ticular piece of work. Still, the work must 
have been assigned in some way, since the col¬ 
ony immediately divided into several groups, 
each with its own special task. 

One group remained at the site chosen for 
the new lodge; another went to work at clear¬ 
ing out underbrush to make a skidway, down 
which material might be brought to the wa¬ 
ter; a third group proceeded directly into the 
woods. It was the job of this last-named group 
to prepare the lumber that was to be used in 
the building. Mother and Father Beaver were 
members of this party of woodsmen, and 
O-Go, who hadn’t the least idea of the rea¬ 
son for so much activity, followed them to 
see what was about to happen. 

Their way into the forest led through the 
long canal. That was a pleasant place to swim, 
for the bushes grew high on both banks, al¬ 
most meeting in mid-air, as they leaned over 
the water. No matter how hot the day might 
be out on the open pond, that shaded canal 
was sure to be delightfully cool. There was 
company there, too, for the overhanging bushes 
had always flocks of little, insect-feeding birds; 
and an occasional cottontail rabbit looked out 
from beneath them to wiggle an inquiring 


63 


nose at the passing swimmer. It felt good to 
O-Go to be well again, to be a strong, healthy 
young beaver, living on so fine a pond as 
Patou. So O-Go’s tiny, black, shoe-button eyes 
were fairly shining, as with powerful strokes 
of his webbed hind feet he made his way 
through the canal toward the forest. 

The lodge, in which O-Go, Ilg, and Ela 
had been born, was an island one, its base 
being a small hummock that barely projected 
above the constant level of the water of the 
pond. Such a lodge is the most desirable, for 
it cannot be approached except by water, and 
most enemies of the beaver are unable to at¬ 
tack them except when they are on land. 

However, all the hummocks of sufficient size 
to be used as foundations were already occu¬ 
pied. Therefore the beavers of Patou planned 
to build a bank lodge for the new members 
of the colony. The site chosen for this lodge 
was in the canal, and was located at the widest 
point, where it entered the pond. It was a 
very convenient place for such a building, since 
the canal made easy the bringing of food, and 
the nearness of the pond offered safety, in 
case flight became necessary. 

Four of the beavers had remained at the 
lodge site, when the others made their way 
into the woods, and these four at once went 
to work to prepare a foundation. This was no 


64 






- A 

ms m 




Ik -4i^t *-• AM 












,\J* 


r " il* ' 



|P||4 fy 


1/ 





fc .. \JB 


! 


WV' 



[i ® M fx 

t w■ Jt, 4 



\ » 







%jm 


r 





* .Jf}' 

■4vW K&fc, 

IgNi 

L -j«k3al 

k J?X’’ 

jpfc : .j?.‘i i 

ap-"”-'’ v |m 

m‘ V^OwSSt 

>7** ,u* 

' y JM 

k * v.«£* 





KS 



It felt good to O-Go to be well again 











easy task, as the work had to be begun under 
water because of the lack of a supporting hum¬ 
mock. The beavers, having no tools other than 
their paws, could not drive upright sticks as 
a piling; but they managed, nevertheless, to 
get a firm foundation. 

This foundation, which was about twelve 
feet across, was almost a perfect circle, and 
was built of rocks, sticks and mud. The rocks 
were first rolled down the bank of the canal 
into the water; then they were worked into 
position, and a mattress of sticks, mud and 
small stones built in about them. The whole 
mass was so closely worked together that its 
strength and permanency were made certain, 
and it was carried high enough above the 
water to assure the occupants of the new home 
that they would always have a dry floor. 

Meanwhile, in the woods at the head of 
the canal, the other beavers were busily lum¬ 
bering, in order to provide wood to be used 
by the builders, They worked in pairs, and 
the partners were, as a rule, mates. Thus 
Father Beaver and Mother Beaver were at the 
same tree. 

Father Beaver, an old hand at such labor, 
knew just how to begin, for without any 
hesitation he chose the tree on which he wished 
to work. It was a fine, straight poplar of the 
cottonwood variety, and was about seven 


67 


inches in diameter. Moreover, it was so lo¬ 
cated that it could be dropped in such a manner 
as to prevent its branches becoming entangled 
with those of other trees. 

As soon as he had satisfied himself as to 
all these matters, Father Beaver, choosing the 
down-hill side of the tree as his place to work, 
drove his broad, orange-colored front teeth 
deep into the wood of the tree. Mother 
Beaver, on the opposite side of the poplar, did 
likewise, settling herself in such a position 
that her hind legs and her broad, flat tail 
seemed to form a three-legged stool. 

Both of them were expert woodsmen, as 
their work plainly showed. First, they made 
a down-cutting stroke; then an up-cutting one. 
Usually, the double chip, thus made, came 
away cleanly, but if it did not, a third bite, 
combined with a sharp pull, brought it free. 
They kept steadily busy at their task, thor¬ 
oughly enjoying the doing of it. This tree-cut- 
ting is work at which beavers excel. More¬ 
over, their constantly-growing chisel teeth 
must be continually worn away by such exer¬ 
cise as this, and the wearing-away process felt 
pleasant to them. 


68 



O-GO’S SECOND ENEMY 


O GO lay under the hazel bush with Ilg 
and Ela, watching his parents cut 
steadily away at the big poplar tree. 
Never before, had it taken them so long to get 
a tree down, and O-Go was puzzled about the 
matter. There were plenty of small trees all 
about, which would have done just as well 
to furnish bark for O-Go’s dinner, and he 
didn’t like the idea of waiting while they 
chopped down this big one. 


69 




By and by, there came from the big poplar 
tree a loud, snapping crack, and Father Beaver 
knew at once that it was high time for him 
to leave the place where he was working. 
Accordingly, he went around to Mother Bea¬ 
ver’s side of the tree. Then, both beavers, stand¬ 
ing as tall as they could, pushed hard and 
steadily with their hand-like fore paws. The 
snapping sound was repeated, and the poplar 
tree leaned slowly and gracefully forward; 
then it toppled, falling with a great crash 
into the only space open to receive it. 

There was now an abundance of food at 
hand in the tender top-branches, and O-Go, 
Ilg, and Ela went eagerly to work at dis¬ 
posing of as much of it as they could eat. 
Their parents, however, ate sparingly, for they 
had yet much work to do. They must pro¬ 
vide sticks of wood of proper length and 
thickness to be used by the builders, and until 
they had a good supply of such material they 
would not rest a great deal. 

For the present, they entirely disregarded 
the lower part of the tree, as thick, heavy 
logs were not to be used in the building of 
the lodge. But all that portion of the tree, 
above the point where it had tapered to a 
size of three inches, was usable, the inner bark 
as food, the wood itself as building material. 
There was another reason, too, why the bark 


70 


needed to be removed from these branches. 
This was that wood left in the bark usually 
decays more rapidly than does wood that has 
been peeled. 

While his parents, assisted by other grown 
members of the colony, were still busy at cut¬ 
ting off the tree's branches, and while Ilg and 
Ela were yet at their eating, O-Go finished 
his meal. As he hadn’t eaten enough to make 
him feel sleepy, and there seemed nothing fur¬ 
ther to interest him there in the slashing, 
O-Go wandered away. Perhaps, his mother 
did not notice him leave; perhaps, she sup¬ 
posed that he had gone down the canal to 
the new lodge. 

O-Go had done neither of those things. He 
had wandered off at an angle, coming out of 
the woods and onto the shore a full hun¬ 
dred yards from the mouth of the canal. 
This was new territory to O-Go, and it was 
best to be cautious. He paused, looked and 
listened, his round, little ears set to catch any 
hostile sound, his nostrils alert to detect any 
enemy scent, and his beady eyes keen to see 
whatever might be there to see. 

He was not long in finding something to 
interest him. There, not over a dozen yards 
from where he stood, were six queer crea¬ 
tures who swam, not in the water but upon 
it. Such a thing as that, thought O-Go, ought 


71 


to be investigated, and that at once. He would 
go out to them and look them over. With¬ 
out stopping to thwack, O-Go slipped into 
the pond, and started on his way. 

O-Go did not finish that short journey; 
for Mother Loon, who had been watching 
him from the moment when he came out of 
the woods, did not await his arrival. With 
an angry squawk, she was upon the little 
beaver before he had travelled three yards from 
the shore; and was busily hammering him 
with her powerful wings and her hard beak. 
No beaver ever took a worse beating than 
that angry mother loon gave to poor O-Go. 

O-Go dived, but this effort to escape the 
angry mother loon was useless, for she under¬ 
stood the art of underwater swimming as well 
as he did. She kept right after him, nipping 
him sharply, and he therefore came again to 
the surface. Here, he was even worse off, as 
the loon had now the use of her mighty wings 
as weapons. Never had O-Go been more 
frightened than he was then, for the blows 
he was receiving were both numerous and 
painful. It is true that his hurts were not dan¬ 
gerous ones, but O-Go was kept too busy 
to realize that. 

The whipping which that mother bird was 
giving to O-Go might have lasted even longer 
than it did, had not the noise of the battle 


72 



With an angry squawk, she was upon 
the little beaver 










come to the ears of those adult beavers who 
were at work on the new lodge. On their 
approach, the loon withdrew, shrieking with 
wild and triumphant laughter. She rejoined 
her mate and their four little ones, whom O-Go 
would not have hurt, if he could, and couldn’t 
have hurt had he wanted to do so. 

O-Go’s curiosity would always be a vig¬ 
orous one, but on the subject of loons it was 
forever satisfied. The lesson he had received 
that evening had been too severe to permit 
him ever to forget it, for that beating left 
him bruised and sore for many days. 



75 



WORK AND PLAY 


ALTHOUGH the foundation of the new 
/\ lodge was all of twelve feet wide, 
1 \ the inside of the building was intended 

to be only six feet across. The reason for this 
was that the walls were to be a full three feet 
in thickness. That thickness was absolutely 
necessary, because the beavers would have no 
heat in their home except that supplied by 
their own bodies. This would be all they 
needed, however, for very little of it would 


76 




be lost by radiation through three feet of mud 
and sticks. 

The sticks used in the work of building 
were brought from the slashing, many of them 
coming from the big poplar which Father 
Beaver and Mother Beaver had recently felled. 
The preparation of the material for its use 
in construction was greatly helped by the fact 
that, for the time being, all the members of 
the colony were making their meals off the 
bark of that tree. 

However, the wood had not only to be 
peeled, but also cut into building lengths, be¬ 
fore it was ready to be transported to the site 
of the new lodge; and this work fell to the 
forest crew. This crew consisted of Father 
Beaver, Mother Beaver, Shovel-tail and Uncle 
Castor, all of them skillful foresters. They 
made use of no yard sticks or tape lines, and 
they kept no tally of the work done; yet there 
was always just about the right proportion 
of sticks of each length needed by the builders. 

As fast as the sticks were made ready by 
the foresters, another relay of beavers seized 
upon them and dragged them to the canal, 
by way of the path which had been cleared 
through the underbrush for that purpose. At 
the canal, each stick was turned over to a 
beaver, who was there waiting for it. This 
beaver, carrying the stick, either with his fore 


77 


paws or, if that pleased him better, in his 
mouth, delivered it to the carpenter-masons 
who were doing the actual building. 

The carpenter-mason beavers set each stick 
into position in the wall of the building, and 
plastered it there with soft wet mud, which 
they spread with their fore paws, and patted 
as much as might be needed to make it hold 
firmly. They had to work very slowly and 
carefully, lest they push out of place work 
already done but not yet dry. This was the 
more true, because the wall they were build¬ 
ing did not go straight up, but curved gently 
in as it rose. 

Mud to be used as plaster was brought up 
from the bottom of the canal. Thus, two 
purposes were served by doing one piece of 
work; the beavers supplied themselves with a 
useful building material, and at the same time 
cleared the canal of earth that had washed 
into it during the past year. 

O-Go and Ela helped get that mud from 
the bottom of the canal. Ilg would have 
helped, too, had he not been so busy at his 
eating that he was unable to spare any time 
for work. Ilg’s eating took up most of the 
time that he did not pass in sleeping. O-Go 
on the contrary was a restless little fellow, 
who must always be doing something. There¬ 
fore, he kept busily at his digging until long 


78 


after Ela had gone back into the woods to 
join Ilg and their parents. 

O-Go had a really wonderful time with that 
mud, for he was both playing and working 
at one and the same time. First, he would 
dive down to the bottom of the canal, and 
would come up with as much mud as he 
could squeeze between his fore paws. Then, 
holding his ball of mud in this manner, and 
kicking out strongly with his well-webbed hind 
feet, he would swim over to the new lodge. 
There, he would hand his mud to one of the 
workers, and then go back for more. 

Perhaps, O-Go was as much a nuisance as 
he was a help in all this, for his paws were 
still very small, and therefore the amount of 
material he was able to bring at each load 
amounted to but little. But the older beavers 
gave no sign that they noticed this. They 
took what he brought, with as much serious¬ 
ness as they showed when one of the adults 
arrived with a load. 

When the walls of the house had been 
carried up for a distance of two feet, the bea¬ 
vers began to carpet its floor. This had to 
be done at that time, because later on there 
would be no way of bringing in the leaves 
and moss except by carrying them under water. 
That would never do, for a wet carpet would 
be worse than none at all. 


79 


O-Go helped in this task also, and made 
up in enthusiasm what he lacked in skill. Some¬ 
times, in his hurry, he threw as much of his 
load into the water as he got into the house 
itself. At other times, the material he brought 
was altogether unsuitable to the purpose for 
which it was intended. When that occurred, 
the older beavers made no trouble about the 
matter. They merely tossed out the unwanted 
material, and allowed it to float away down 
the canal. 

There was one other job, connected with 
the building of that lodge, with which O-Go 
would have liked greatly to help. That job 
was the digging of the two tunnels, which 
were to serve as entryways to the home. How¬ 
ever there was always some little danger of a 
cave-in when a tunnel was being constructed; 
and therefore the older beavers gently pushed 
the little fellow away, whenever he sought 
to bear a hand at that task. 

The tunnels were very interesting places, 
and O-Go was not long in exploring them, 
as soon as he was allowed to do so. He 
found that one of them was much longer 
than the other, and that it also began in much 
deeper water. The reason for this was that 
this tunnel was to be used both winter and 
summer. Therefore, it had to go well below 
any possible frost line before entering the 


80 


water. Otherwise, there would have been grave 
danger that the occupants of the lodge might 
be frozen in, and unable to leave their home 
all winter. For that to happen meant that they 
must starve. 

The other tunnel opened out under the 
water of the canal, and was both short and 
straight. It was to be used only during that 
part of the year when the weather was mild, 
and the sap was in the trees. Then the beavers 
of the lodge would bring their foodsticks down 
the canal, and take them into the house through 
that entrance. When really cold weather had 
come, the canal would be frozen to its very 
bottom. Then, only the deep-water entrance 
could be used. 

As O-Go wasn’t allowed to take any part 
in the tunnel-digging, he hunted up Ilg and 
Ela, to see if they might have found any¬ 
thing interesting to do. Ela had done so, al¬ 
though her discovery had happened quite by 
accident. She had come upon a place where 
the bank of the canal had crumbled, making 
a slope, up which she was able to climb. 
Moved by curiosity, she had made her way 
to the top, while Ilg, who was not given to 
unnecessary effort, waited for her in the canal. 

As there was nothing in particular on the 
bank to arouse Ela’s interest, she turned to 
go back down the slope. The water, shed 


81 


from her fur in climbing, had made the earth 
so wet and slippery that Ela came down much 
faster than she had intended doing, and landed 
in the water with a great splash. 

Surprised but pleased, Ela again climbed 
the bank, and repeated that slide. This was 
fun indeed, and Ela made the trip time after 
time. Even lazy Ilg saw that this was rare 
entertainment, and soon he was taking as many 
slides as was Ela. Ilg could hurry as fast as 
any other little beaver, when the object to be 
gained by that hurrying was either food or fun. 



82 



Ela made the trip time after time 










THE BIG POPLAR TREE 

U NCLE Castor was thoroughly dis¬ 
gusted. He had a right to feel that 
way, too, for he and old Chisel-tooth 
had blundered so badly that they had lost an 
entire night’s work. Beavers are seldom care¬ 
less; and it would seem that two who were so 
old that their muzzles were already growing 
white, would not blunder at all. Yet those 
two old foresters had felled a nine-inch pop¬ 
lar in such a way as to permit it to become 


85 





tightly wedged between two strong saplings. 

Thus, the top of the big tree was kept 
suspended a dozen feet above the ground; and, 
since that top contained all the material of any 
use to beavers, the labor of the two friends 
was utterly wasted. Uncle Castor and Chisel- 
tooth must therefore abandon that tree and 
start on another one. 

Had the two beavers been less experienced 
in the ways of the forest, their misfortune 
might have been turned into a tragedy of a 
sort that has happened in many a slashing. 
Ignorant young beavers, for example, would 
probably have attempted to release that tree 
trunk by felling one of the two small trees. 
Such an attempt would have been a terrible 
mistake; for as soon as the pressure on it was 
released, the big tree would have fallen far 
too rapidly to permit any animal so slow-mov¬ 
ing as a beaver to escape. 

The news of Uncle Castor’s bad luck spread 
rapidly through the colony, and every beaver 
came to look at the wasted tree; but there was 
nothing to be done in the matter. That tree 
was a total loss. Therefore, each beaver sol¬ 
emnly inspected it, and then returned to his 
own task; for the new lodge was still far from 
completion. 

O-Go had worked pretty steadily for the 
past few evenings, trying every task at which 


86 


he was permitted to help. He had brought 
mud to be used as mortar, had collected leaves 
and moss to carpet the floor of the lodge, and 
had fetched building sticks from the slash¬ 
ing. He cared less for the stick-carrying job 
that he did for the other ones, as it was neces¬ 
sary to make a two hundred-yard trip through 
the canal for each piece of wood. 

A very few journeys of that sort were all 
that O-Go cared for, and he therefore looked 
about him for something else to do. Perhaps, 
Ilg or Ela might be busy at something which 
would entertain him too. O-Go hunted for 
them all along the bank, but could not find 
them; he looked for them along the canal, 
but they were not there; he sought them in 
the slashing, but they were nowhere to be seen. 
They had eaten their fill, and had gone home 
to sleep. 

There was nothing for O-Go to do, no 
one with w T hom he could play, and nobody 
to entertain him. He wandered around the 
slashing, feeling both bored and lonely. There 
was plenty to eat there, but he was not hun¬ 
gry. There was plenty of wood waiting to be 
carried, but he did not feel inclined to work 
at that. He could, of course, go back to his 
home lodge and sleep, but he wasn’t sleepy. 

Presently, O-Go came to the big poplar tree, 
which Uncle Castor and Chisel-tooth had mis- 


87 


felled. Earlier in the evening, all the beavers 
of the colony had visited that place. Now it 
was deserted, though O-Go could hear work¬ 
ers not far away. 

O-Go wasn't hungry, but his constantly- 
growing chisel teeth urged him to gnaw wood. 
Therefore, he decided to cut down a tree, and 
sought for one not too big for him to handle. 
Finally, quite by chance, he waddled over to 
one of the saplings which supported the big 
tree, and in a moment more he was busily 
gnawing away at it. The fact that he sat di¬ 
rectly beneath the overhanging trunk of the 
suspended poplar meant nothing to O-Go. 

The grinding of his teeth, as he chipped 
away at that sapling, felt good to O-Go. He 
was not lonely now, for he was busy. He was 
not afraid, either, for there were no hostile 
sounds or odors there in the slashing. O-Go 
was a contented little beaver. 

Once, it is true, the big poplar made a 
queer, groaning noise, startling O-Go so badly 
that he scurried to find shelter in the water. 
There, he tarried for a while, lying motion¬ 
less and almost submerged until his heart quit 
its pounding. Then, very cautiously, he once 
more crawled out of the water. 

O-Go listened, but there was nothing to 
hear; he looked, but there was nothing to see; 
he sniffed the air, but its only odors were those 


88 


of the water and the trees. It was evident that 
no dangerous creature was lurking in the slash¬ 
ing, and O-Go therefore returned to his sap¬ 
ling, and resumed his task of chiseling it down. 
He failed to notice that the big poplar under 
which he sat had settled several inches; and, 
even if he had noticed it, the fact would have 
been of no interest to him, for he was still a 
very young beaver. 

Again, the big tree made that snapping, 
groaning noise, and again O-Go turned to flee. 
In his fright, he travelled directly along the 
line of that great trunk. Had he been one 
second later in starting, O-Go would have been 
hopelessly mangled as though by the blow of 
a giant’s club, for the butt of the tree rolled 
slowly off the stump and came to rest along 
the ground. As it was, O-Go escaped with 
his life, and without any serious injury. But 
he was imprisoned among the lower branches, 
so closely confined that he could move only 
a few inches in any direction. 

For a moment, O-Go was paralyzed by his 
fear. Then, he sought frantically to escape, 
turning now this way, now that, in the effort 
to find some opening large enough to permit 
him to pass. There was none. He must either 
remain a prisoner, or he must gnaw his way 
to safety. 

It is doubtful whether O-Go would have 


89 


succeeded in an attempt to do this. More likely 
than not, he would have gnawed just the 
branch, whose removal would bring that great 
tree trunk down upon his head. But he was 
not to be compelled to try this experiment, 
for Uncle Castor, who had heard the sound 
of the tree’s fall, came to investigate, and found 
O-Go in his prison. 

The wise old sagamore of Patou Pond saw 
at once that O-Go was in real peril, and went 
for help. He returned shortly, bringing with 
him O-Go’s parents and old Chisel-tooth. 
Then, the four grown beavers, working very 
carefully, cleared a little lane through the 
branches; and O-Go, still badly frightened, 
made his way to safety and to his mother. 
He had escaped one of the gravest of the dan¬ 
gers that beset a beaver’s life. 



90 




O-GO’S THIRD ENEMY 


O -GO’S adventure with the big poplar 
tree had given him a bad fright. It 
had also caused an hour of worry 
and hard work for his elders. Nevertheless, 
good had resulted from the accident; for it 
had made it possible to use the branches of 
that tree in finishing the building of the new 
lodge. Now, the lodge was completed, and 
was ready to be occupied by the two beavers, 
whose home it was to be. 


91 


Seen from the outside, the lodge appeared 
to be much roomier than it actually was. This 
was because the walls were everywhere a full 
three feet in thickness. Therefore the one room 
of the dwelling was only a little over six feet 
across, and its height at the center was just 
a trifle over three and one-half feet. From that 
height, the room, which was dome-shaped, 
curved gently down to meet the floor. Thus 
it was all ceiling. 

The entire structure had been built of 
short, peeled sticks, thoroughly laced together 
and plastered with mud. Over this structure, 
the beavers had, however, thrown a loose 
mass of longer sticks, which still retained their 
bark, and were held in position only by their 
own weight. These were piled on with such 
apparent carelessness that the lodge looked al¬ 
most like a tangled mass of driftwood, instead 
of a well-built building. Further concealment 
was furnished by the many clumps of wil¬ 
lows which grew out of the water all over 
that portion of Patou Pond. 

O-Go, Ilg, and Ela visited the new lodge, as 
did all the other members of the beaver col¬ 
ony. They found the place much to their lik¬ 
ing, for it was almost exactly like their own 
home. Of course, they would not live in the 
new lodge, but it was well for them to be¬ 
come acquainted with the exact location of 


92 


both its entrances. Then, in case they needed 
a refuge from any enemy, when they hap¬ 
pened to be in that neighborhood, they would 
be able to find one of those two tunnels in the 
least possible time. 

Now that the new lodge was finished, there 
was little or no work at hand, and the whole 
colony on Patou settled down to a life of 
leisure. Earlier in the season the dam had been 
given all needed repairs, and had also been 
lengthened a little, in order to increase the 
spread of water in the pond. This was done, 
because the supply of food was thereby in¬ 
creased by bringing the water close to more 
poplar and aspen trees. 

The value of having so much food close at 
hand lay in the fact that supplies must not only 
be had for the summer, but must also be stored 
for the long, cold winter. This work of stor¬ 
ing food would not be attended to until late 
September or early October. Therefore, there 
was no reason why any beaver in the colony 
need do any more work than was required 
to supply himself with food from day to day. 

For the most part, the grown beavers idled 
about, going into the slashing only when they 
wished to eat, and not bothering to carry any 
foodsticks back to the lodges. They went 
whenever they happened to be hungry, some¬ 
times making such trips in broad daylight; 


93 


for though the forest preserve had many va¬ 
cation visitors in it, few of them ever came 
near that part of the pond where the lodges 
were located. 

Such visitors as did approach the pond, usu¬ 
ally reported that they had found little to re¬ 
ward them for their trouble; for the woods 
near the canal had been partly flooded by the 
lengthening of the dam. Moreover, the lodges 
were so located among the willows as to make 
it impossible for any visitor to get even a 
glimpse of them, unless he wished first to wade 
waist deep in the pond. As very few persons 
would take so much bother, the beavers were 
but seldom disturbed. 

Furthermore, a trip through the neighbor¬ 
hood of the lodges was to be made only with 
a great deal of noise. At the first sound made 
by an invader, the beaver who was standing 
guard at that moment was sure to thwack, 
and then every member of the colony at once 
disappeared. Thus the beavers on Patou were 
seldom disturbed, and their season of idle¬ 
ness was an exceedingly pleasant one. 

The young beavers had nothing to do ex¬ 
cept to eat, to sleep and to play. Naturally, 
their growth under such conditions was rapid; 
so that the end of August found O-Go, Ilg, 
and Ela weighing about fifteen pounds each. 
Their strength had increased accordingly; and 


94 


now, they could swim as rapidly, or stay un¬ 
der water as long, as could their elders. When 
awake and not eating, they were always at 
their games, for they were healthy, and there¬ 
fore found pleasure in the use of their strong 
young muscles. 

Sometimes, they played at hide-and-seek, a 
game for which their own neighborhood was 
wonderfully suited, for there were many 
clumps of willows to furnish concealment. 
Sometimes, they played at tag; sometimes, at 
follow-the-leader. All of these games were ed¬ 
ucational, as well as pleasurable, for through 
them the little beavers became thoroughly ac¬ 
quainted with every hiding place in the pond, 
and also gained in skill at dodging when pur¬ 
sued. 

They played in the slashing, too, and found 
there many good things to eat, for several kinds 
of low-growing berries were now ripe. There 
was also a plentiful supply of mushrooms, a 
food of which O-Go never became tired. Every 
day, as soon as he came into the slashing, O-Go 
went straight to that mushroom plantation. 
He was never disappointed, either; for, no mat¬ 
ter how thoroughly those mushrooms were 
cleaned up one day, there were always more 
the next. 

It was very pleasant to O-Go to be in the 
woods. He liked the food that he found there; 


95 


he liked, when he had eaten, to rest a while 
in some sunny spot only one step from the 
sheltering water; he liked, when he had sunned 
himself a while, to play a little longer in the 
woods or in the sun-warmed water of the 
pond; he liked, too, to swim in that pond by 
moonlight. With play, with fine food, and 
with abundant sleep, O-Go, Ilg, and Ela were 
having a wonderful summer. 

Most of the play was without any real ad¬ 
venture, but once O-Go had a really terrifying 
experience. The game that warm August even¬ 
ing was a combination of tag and hide-and- 
seek, and the little beavers had a great deal 
of fun out of it; now hiding behind a clump 
of willows; now darting out, to chase or be 
chased by a playmate. It was while he was 
resting for a moment in concealment that O-Go 
noticed, what he took to be an older beaver, 
watching him closely. 

O-Go did not mind being watched at his 
play, and therefore paid but little attention to 
the matter. He turned to keep an eye upon 
Ilg who was hunting for his brother. But Ilg 
started off in a wrong direction, and O-Go 
again glanced carelessly towards the watcher, 
noticing that the stranger was perceptibly 
closer. 

This seemed peculiar to O-Go, for there 
was no current in that place, and the stranger 


96 


did not appear to be making any effort at swim¬ 
ming. O-Go glanced again. Yes; the strange 
beaver was swimming towards him, but com¬ 
ing so slowly and quietly that he seemed 
scarcely to move at all. What a queer head he 
had! The hairs about his mouth were so thick 
as to form a regular moustache. O-Go had 
never before seen a beaver like that one. O-Go 
felt a faint twinge of alarm. 

Just at that moment came a slight whisper 
of breeze, bringing with it the stranger’s odor, 
and O-Go’s nostrils told him that something 
was very wrong. The stranger wasn’t a beaver 
at all, but an otter. 

His heart hammering with sudden terror, 
O-Go thwacked and dived, swimming with 
all the power of his webbed hind feet. Nor 
had he been a moment too soon in starting that 
flight, for only his thirty-foot start saved him 
from the first fierce rush of his enemy. The 
otter was not so heavy as a full-grown beaver, 
and was capable of much faster swimming. 
This was because of his more slender body and 
his four webbed feet. So swift was he, in fact, 
that he readily overtook and captured even the 
fleetest of fish, the trout and the grayling. 

Down, down went O-Go, for he had been 
in one of the few places where the depth of 
the pond was over six feet. But the otter kept 
right after him. It would have been the end 


97 


of O-Go, had it not been that his flight led 
him to the shelter of an underwater brush-pile. 
There he turned sharply and shot to the sur¬ 
face, while his pursuer, deceived for the mo¬ 
ment, broke water as far from his prey as when 
their grim race had started. 

O-Go dived again, this time swimming di¬ 
rectly for his home tunnel, now less than fifty 
feet away and in somewhat shallower water. 
The otter dived, too, but this time his pursuit 
of O-Go was a short one; for Father Beaver, 
Uncle Castor and old Shovel-tail had come to 
the rescue. Without the slightest hesitation, all 
three attacked the enemy at once, a thing which 
only the grimmest necessity could have led 
them to do, for beavers are the most peaceable 
of animals. 

That fierce, meat-eating beast, the otter, 
would have very quickly disposed of any one 
of his attackers; and, even with three to fight, 
put up a tremendous battle, slashing each of 
them time and again. But they kept constantly 
at him, forcing the fight below the surface as 
much as possible, and seeing to it that only one 
of their number at a time came up for air. 

Even so, the otter was twice able to break 
away from them, and assume the offensive, 
and it was only the arrival of two more grown 
beavers that decided the affair. Then, and then 
only, the otter gave up the struggle and fled. 


98 



He turned sharply and shot to the surface 









AUTUMN PREPARATIONS 

I T WAS still summer on Patou; the willow 
clumps were in full foliage, and the pond 
lilies spread the ivory and gold of their 
great blossoms as thickly as ever. Giant dragon 
flies darted hither and yon, their gauzy wings 
shimmering in the sunlight, as they took their 
way over the dark water. Sapsuckers and wood¬ 
peckers drilled merrily away in the woods, 
the rat-a-tat-tat of their hammering echoing 
through the reaches of the forest. 


101 


Deep in the woods, the elk, his horns now 
hardened and freed from their casing of velvet, 
guarded his mate, or engaged in mortal com¬ 
bat with others of his kind. 

It was still summer on Patou; but there were 
signs a-plenty that that summer was aging to 
its end. The yellow-winged blackbirds had 
abandoned family life, and now flocked in un¬ 
told thousands amongst the reeds that lined 
the shore. The young ducks, shoveler, pintail, 
mallard and teal, were all full grown; and daily 
tested their wings in longer and longer flights, 
preparatory to the great migration which the 
passing of a very few weeks must bring. Geese, 
too, were beginning to come in from the North¬ 
land, where autumn had already arrived. 

Days were still hot on Patou, the thermom¬ 
eter at times climbing into the nineties, but the 
nights were cool; so that, although frost was 
still some weeks away, the tourists passing 
through the great forest slept under blankets 
and found them comfortable. 

Of most of these changes, O-Go saw but 
little, as he was seldom abroad in full day¬ 
light; but he, too, was all unknowingly mak¬ 
ing his preparation for the long, cold winter. 
The fur that lay beneath his coarse outer hair 
was becoming unbelievably thick and soft; 
while between his skin and the underlying 
muscles, there was forming a layer of fat, which 


102 


was not only to warm him but also to assist 
in supplying him with nourishment. 

O-Go was entirely contented with his life in 
those days, for food was plentiful, and he was 
well and strong. He also knew that, even when 
he was not hungry, there was satisfaction in 
gnawing on a poplar stick. Sometimes he would 
select a branch that was three or four feet long, 
and would cut it into short pieces; then, choos¬ 
ing the piece which had the most knots, he 
would worry away at it until it had been almost 
entirely reduced to chips. Thus his constantly- 
growing, orange-colored front teeth were kept 
always worn to a proper length and keenness. 

He knew all the sounds and odors common 
to the neighborhood of the pond, and could 
read their messages. He knew that the porcu¬ 
pine, like the beaver a night feeder, was, despite 
his forbidding appearance, harmless when let 
alone. He knew that the squirrels, who chat¬ 
tered in the tree tops, were his friends, and 
would warn him of the approach of any enemy 
who came by land, and in the daytime. 

O-Go knew that Mother Bear was fond of 
fruit, and that she liked privacy. Therefore, 
when her smell and that of her two cubs hung 
heavy over a berry patch, O-Go considered that 
patch as her property. It was not a safe place 
for little beavers. He knew that the resound¬ 
ing whirr of partridge wings carried no mes- 


103 


sage of danger, but that the far less noisy rattle 
of the pit viper was filled with a deadly menace. 

O-Go, however, differed from the other 
members of the colony in one respect; he had 
no deep-seated fear of man. This was due to 
his having lived for some days at the cabin 
of Wallace, the ranger. There, he had allowed 
the young man and those of his friends who 
called there, to handle him freely. He had, fur¬ 
thermore, received a number of visits from 
Wallace since his return to the pond. 

The ranger had missed O-Go greatly, and 
had therefore sought to renew their acquaint¬ 
ance. He had several times, when nightfall 
found him in that neighborhood, waited in 
the edge of the slashing in hopes of meeting 
the little fellow. On the first three occasions, 
Wallace’s efforts were unsuccessful. This was 
because some grown beaver, catching sound or 
scent of him, had given the alarm. Thereupon, 
O-Go had dived with the rest, for he had been 
well trained to obey all such warnings. 

Wallace was unwilling to give up the idea 
of renewing his friendship with O-Go; there¬ 
fore, he came a fourth time to the slashing. 
This time he was more fortunate, for O-Go 
happened to wander very close to the point 
where he was hiding. Consequently, the little 
beaver was the first to catch the ranger’s scent, 
and some slight stirring of memory prevented 


104 


him from giving the alarm at once. He waited a 
moment, sitting bolt upright to sniff the air; 
then half-minded to flee, but filled with curi¬ 
osity, he moved slowly towards the man. 

Wallace heard him, and gave the low whistle, 
with which he had formerly been accustomed 
to call O-Go to him. At that sound, memory 
stirred still more strongly in the mind of the 
little beaver. He trembled with excitement and 
with fear; yet he did not leave, but, as though 
drawn by some power beyond his control, he 
came to the ranger’s feet. 

Had Wallace, even then, made any sudden 
movement, O-Go would have fled, but the 
ranger was too wise to commit such an error. 
He began to talk quietly to O-Go, and at the 
same time to lower his hand. In that hand lay 
a small potato. Its smell completed the awak¬ 
ening of O-Go’s memory, and he accepted the 
gift. Then he submitted to being petted. 

Thereafter, whenever it was possible for 
Wallace to do so, he visited the slashing. Al¬ 
ways he brought with him a potato or two; 
so that O-Go came to look for his visits. Soon 
the two were as friendly as ever, and O-Go did 
not flee, even when some other beaver, catch¬ 
ing the man-odor, gave the alarm. Learning 
to disregard any warning is a dangerous thing 
for a wild animal, and loss of the fear of 
man is particularly likely to lead to disaster. 


105 



THE INVADERS 

A LL OF the beavers had thoroughly en~ 
/% joyed their season of rest and idleness, 
7 % but the time for such things was now 

at an end, for it was mid-September. Only a 
few weeks were left, during which the sap 
would remain in the tree tops; and in that 
short space of time there was much work for 
the colony to do. Enough food must be put 
in storage to last them all, until another spring 
should cause the buds again to swell. 




106 






In some manner, the message was spread 
that the work of collection and storage was 
to begin on a certain evening. Therefore, that 
evening found every beaver in the slashing, 
and ready to start work. They worked, as al¬ 
ways, in silence; yet there was perfect har¬ 
mony, and the work was so divided as to be 
best accomplished, although no one beaver 
seemed to hold any authority over the others. 

Half a dozen pairs, usually mate and mate, 
were engaged in the felling of poplars, the trees 
chosen ranging in thickness from four to ten 
inches. As a rule, the cutting was done mostly 
from one side, that side being the one nearest 
to the water. Sometimes, however, the labor 
was so planned as to drop the tree parallel to 
the shore-line. At this task, the beavers stood 
almost upright, and their broad, flat tails, 
touching the ground, made them appear to be 
sitting upon stools. 

The cutting was almost continuously car¬ 
ried on during the earlier part of the night, 
one beaver working steadily for about twenty 
minutes, and then stepping aside to allow his 
partner or mate to carry on in his place. Occa¬ 
sionally, the beaver who was resting would 
step up to the tree, and would cut for a minute 
or two at the point directly opposite that on 
which the other was working. They seemed 
to have a very definite idea as to how much of 


107 


this sort of thing was necessary to the job. 

As there was no part of the work which 
O-Go was fitted to do, and nothing new to 
him in seeing a tree felled, there was no par¬ 
ticular reason for him to remain in the slash¬ 
ing. Besides, only a short distance away, there 
were berries and mushrooms to be had for the 
taking. Then, too, there was always the possi¬ 
bility that his friend Wallace might have passed 
that way. In that case, there would be a potato 
for O-Go. Potatoes, in O-Go's opinion, were 
even better than pond lily roots; though he 
was the only beaver on Patou to hold such a 
view, since none of the others had ever tasted 
a farm-grown vegetable. 

O-Go found the mushrooms rather scanty 
in number, as the place had been gone over so 
often that not many mushrooms had been left 
to multiply. This had not been altogether the 
work of the beavers; for occasionally a bear 
had visited the place, and had dined there. 
Moreover, the season was by now so far ad¬ 
vanced that warm nights were very few; and 
such nights are necessary to the growth of 
mushrooms. Nevertheless, O-Go, having the 
place to himself, managed to find enough of 
the tasty bits to make a very fair meal. 

Here was food which did not need to be 
chiseled off, as did poplar bark; it need not be 
ground into pulp between his molars, before 


108 



A light that was absolutely blinding shone 
into O-Go's eyes 




it was fit to be swallowed, for it was pulp 
already. All that O-Go had to do was to pick 
it up in his front paws, cram it into his mouth, 
and crush it with his tongue. Then, when the 
fullness of that wonderful flavor had been ex¬ 
hausted, he had only to swallow, and to hunt 
for a fresh mouthful. There were no potatoes 
for O-Go that evening; but he dined on mush¬ 
rooms and lay down at the water’s edge, at 
peace with himself and with his world. 

Suddenly, O-Go caught a whiff of man- 
scent, coming down wind to him from a point 
some fifty yards distant. The place was not that 
to which Wallace usually came, and the scent 
itself was somehow different. Just wherein that 
difference lay, O-Go did not know; but he 
was conscious of it, and was therefore sus¬ 
picious. It was true that, at Wallace’s cabin, 
he had met a number of the ranger’s friends 
and had allowed them to pet him. That, how¬ 
ever, had been some months ago, and since 
his return to Patou he had met no human 
being except the ranger. Therefore, O-Go hes¬ 
itated, standing at full height, in order to test 
the queer scent to its utmost. 

Then happened a most terrifying thing. A 
light that was absolutely blinding shone 
squarely into O-Go’s eyes. At that very in¬ 
stant, Uncle Castor, who was on guard duty, 
sounded the alarm. All the beavers, who were 


in 


at work in the slashing, immediately took to 
the water; but O-Go, still blinded by the flash¬ 
light, remained motionless for a full minute. 

If either of the two men, who crouched 
watching him, had wished to shoot him, O-Go 
would have been an easy target. However, they 
spared him, finally snapping off the light, and 
permitting him to make his way to the water, 
undisturbed except for his fears. This was 
through no feeling of mercy on their part; for 
one of them was an outlaw trapper, and the 
other a dealer in unlawfully-taken furs; and 
each was without a grain of pity in his being. 

O-Go was permitted to live for just one 
reason; it was not yet late enough in the year 
for beaver fur to have reached its prime. Hence, 
the two men were not at that moment seeking 
for pelts, but were merely spying out the land. 
They were travelling by night, examining all 
traces of beaver work in the great forest, in 
order that the dealer might decide whether it 
was worth while to grubstake the trapper for 
the coming winter. Thus it was, that the two 
men spent an entire night in walking the woods 
and wading the waters of Patou, flashing their 
lights here and there, until they had formed 
an accurate estimate of the number of beavers 
in the colony. 


112 



WINTER FOOD 


ALL of the beavers on Patou had been ter- 
/\ ribly frightened by the light and the 
1 \ sounds made by the invaders. Indeed, so 

great was their fear, that for two days they 
remained hidden in their lodges. The third day, 
however, found them back in the slashings; for 
food must soon be collected and stored, lest 
the rapidly approaching winter bring starva¬ 
tion to them all. 

A number of trees had been partly cut at the 


113 


time when the work had been interrupted, and 
the felling of these was soon completed. Then, 
the beavers began the task of cutting the 
branches into lengths suitable for storage. At 
this work, even little beavers were of use; there¬ 
fore O-Go, Ilg, and Ela went daily into the 
slashing to help their parents. 

Ilg’s assistance did not amount to much, for 
he was so greedy that he kept his mouth about 
as busy as his paws. But O-Go and Ela were 
enthusiastic workers, although they, too, were 
at times somewhat of a nuisance. This was 
because in their eagerness, they kept getting in 
the way of their elders, and had to be shoved 
aside. Whenever this had to be done, it was 
done gently, for the grown beavers knew that 
the little ones were doing as well as they could. 

Wrecking the fallen trees was a far more 
tedious job than the felling of them had been, 
since each branch must first be removed from 
the trunk and must then be cut into pieces of 
proper length. Some of these pieces were poles 
six or eight feet long, but the majority were 
considerably shorter. This was necessary in 
order that they might be dragged through the 
tunnels and into the lodges, when it was time 
for them to be used. 

As fast as the foodsticks were prepared, a 
second group of workers dragged them down 
the skidway that led to the canal. There, a 


114 


third crew received them. This third group 
performed the actual work of storage, which 
consisted of sinking the sticks in the deepest 
part of the pond and anchoring them to pre¬ 
vent their returning to the surface. 

The doing of this work was not so difficult, 
since a sap-laden stick is almost as heavy as 
the volume of water which it displaces. There¬ 
fore, all that was needed was for the beaver to 
rest his weight on the stick and to sink with it 
to the bottom of the pond. Then, a few hand¬ 
fuls of mud, raked over one end of the stick, 
sufficed to hold it in position. Later on, other 
sticks could be entangled with those first sunk, 
and as all soon became waterlogged, they would 
remain in place until it was time to use them. 

O-Go was not yet old enough to be trusted 
with the work of putting sticks into storage, 
but he could carry one as well as could any 
beaver; that is, of course, if the stick were not 
too large a one. He could carry the stick in his 
mouth or, if he wished, tuck it under his fore¬ 
paws, while his webbed hind feet attended 
to the swimming. 

One thing which kept O-Go interested was 
the variety of tasks at which he was permitted 
to work. Whenever he tired of carrying sticks 
for the storage crew, he could go back to the 
slashing and help his parents at cutting up 
branches. When that occupation, too, bored 


115 


him, he could assist in dragging or pushing 
sticks down the skid way; if he did not feel like 
working at all, he could play, or eat, or sleep. 
Ela worked even harder than did O-Go, but Ilg 
surpassed them both in eating and sleeping. 

For nearly five weeks, the beavers of Patou 
colony kept busily at work, putting away 
food for winter use, for they were thrifty and 
the supply of green wood was all that they 
could wish. If the winter should turn out to be 
a mild one, and the spring that followed it 
came early, there would be a large surplus of 
foodsticks left over, but that surplus would not 
be wasted. Such sticks could be used to make 
the repairs needed by both lodges and dam 
during the coming year. 

If, on the other hand, the winter should be 
a long and hard one, there would be no short¬ 
age of food in that colony. Spring would find 
its members well fed and in good condition 



116 



UNCLE CASTOR 

T HERE was trouble on Patou Pond, for 
one of the members of the beaver col¬ 
ony had lost his life in a trap. This 
beaver had been one of that pair which had 
joined the colony the previous spring, and for 
which the entire colony had labored so hard 
to build the new lodge. Now, that lodge would, 
for a long time at least, have but a single ten¬ 
ant; for when beavers mate, it is for life. Later 
on perhaps, other beavers might move in to 

i 







share the home of the widowed one. She knew 
the fate that had befallen her mate, for she 
had been beside him at the moment when the 
trap had snapped about his foot. But she 
had been unable to help him. She had brought 
other members of the colony, but they, too, 
had been powerless to save him. 

The loss of one member of the colony was 
serious enough, but the thing that worried the 
old beavers was the knowledge that there were 
probably many other traps waiting for the 
unwary. Father Beaver, Uncle Castor, and 
Chisel-tooth knew this very well indeed, for 
they had lived during the bad days before the 
forest preserve had been marked out. They 
had, as a consequence of that fact, a very good 
idea of the situation, for they had witnessed 
more than one grim struggle for existence. 

It was clear to all the old beavers that some¬ 
thing must be done about this matter of traps, 
if the colony was to continue. Therefore, Father 
Beaver, Uncle Castor and Chisel-tooth started 
out that same night. Because of their past 
experience, they had a pretty definite idea of 
what was to be done. 

First of all, they swam out to the dam, and 
then floated slowly along it. They were seek¬ 
ing for something which they could use to 
make traps harmless to beavers. Whenever 
they came upon a bit of driftwood, they ex¬ 


its 


amined it with care; but for a long time they 
found nothing that exactly suited their purpose. 

At length, however, they located just what 
they wished; it was a billet of poplar wood, 
and was about five feet long and some eight 
inches thick. This stick was almost, although 
not quite, water-logged, and the short stubs 
of several branches were still on it. 

With great care not to touch the dam itself, 
those three wise old beavers gently clawed 
that log away from the bank. One end swung 
out easily enough, but the other offered con¬ 
siderable resistance. Therefore Uncle Castor, 
with the help of Chisel-tooth, pushed sideways 
on it, while Father Beaver tugged bravely at 
the free end. 

“Snap!” The log came away from the dam; 
but with it came the thing that made that 
terrifying noise. It flew through the air, just 
missing Uncle Castor’s head, and then splashed 
into the water, dangling from the log—by a 
short piece of chain. Quite by accident, the three 
beavers had sprung one of the traps, but for¬ 
tunately they had done so without harm. 

It was now perfectly safe for them to handle 
that poplar log, had they chosen to do so; but 
the three old beavers would have nothing fur¬ 
ther to do with it. They left it floating where 
it lay, and sought elsewhere. However, they 
could find no other log suited to their pur- 


119 


pose; therefore they gave up that idea, and 
returned to the neighborhood of the lodges. 

There, on the shore, where the water had 
been backed up by the dam, lay a boulder. 
Thirty thousand or more years before this 
time, that stone had been the plaything of the 
glacier which, in those days covered the ter¬ 
ritory now occupied by the great forest. As 
a result of its handling by that ancient river 
of ice, the stone was shaped into an almost 
perfect hemisphere, its rounded upper surface 
smooth, its flattened side rough and uneven. 

The stone had been much reduced in size 
through its rough treatment in the Ice Age; 
nevertheless, it was still a bulky object, weigh¬ 
ing at least thirty-five pounds. To move so 
heavy an affair was no easy task, especially as 
the stone was well embedded in the earth that 
surrounded it. But the three old beavers went 
valiantly to work, and in an hour’s time, had 
dug the soil from about the boulder, and had 
worked it out of its bed. Then, working two 
at a time, while the third beaver rested, they 
rolled that stone here and there, until they had 
covered a very large part of the slashing. 

Had the stone been especially designed for 
the work to which the three beavers put it, it 
could have been no better suited to their pur¬ 
pose. Every time it came down on its flat 
surface, it did so with a mighty thump that 


120 



P9$m 


There was nothing he could do to free himself 


















shook the ground upon which it fell; and six 
times that night the thump was followed by 
the loud snap of a released trap. Every such 
snap meant that one more danger to the colony 
had been removed. 

The skill shown by those three old beavers 
in the locating of the traps was uncanny. Per¬ 
haps, they were able to pick the right spots 
by reason of the appearance of the ground 
where the traps lay buried. Perhaps, despite 
the use of castor-extract, the odor of steel was 
still perceptible to their keen noses. At any 
rate, Father Beaver and his two associates knew 
what to do, and did it. 

Dawn had almost come when the unex¬ 
pected happened. All but one of the traps close 
to the head of the canal had been sprung; but 
onto that one Uncle Castor stepped. The saw¬ 
like edges of the iron jaws were instantly 
clamped upon his foot, and he was a prisoner; 
a hopeless prisoner, too, for the foot by which 
he was held was a back one. There was nothing 
he could do to free himself. 

From the woods beyond the slashing, came 
scent and sound of an approaching man; and 
Father Beaver and Chisel-tooth, thwacked and 
dived, while Uncle Castor waited alone for 
his doom. 


123 



T HE MAN, who came swiftly through 
the slashing towards Uncle Castor, car¬ 
ried in his hand a short, flat bar of 
steel. He kept steadily on his way, and in a 
few seconds stood directly over the old beaver. 
The latter made no effort to escape, but sat 
upright, his hand-like fore paws clasped upon 
his head, as though to break, as much as pos¬ 
sible, the force of an expected blow. 

However, Uncle Castor was really in no 


RANGER WALLACE AGAIN 


124 


danger at all, for his visitor was O-Go’s good 
friend, Wallace. The young man’s face was set 
and stern, as he stood there, looking down at 
Uncle Castor; but its severity was all for the 
evil person who had done this great wrong. 
For Uncle Castor he had only pity, and he 
spoke gently to the old fellow, meanwhile 
grasping his leg at a point just above the trap. 

The ranger was wary, lest in his fear the 
beaver should turn and bite him; but this cau¬ 
tion was entirely unnecessary, for Uncle Castor 
realized his helplessness, and offered no resis¬ 
tance. Assured that his hands were in no dan¬ 
ger, Wallace quickly inserted the chisel-edged 
end of the steel bar between the jaws of the 
trap. Then, with a quick twist of his power¬ 
ful wrist, he forced the trap open, and lifted 
out of it the imprisoned foot. 

So numb was the old beaver’s leg from the 
cruel pressure it had undergone, that he at first 
seemed not to realize his freedom, but stood 
gazing dumbly at his benefactor. Then, the 
blood began again to circulate through the in¬ 
jured leg; and Uncle Castor, with a parting 
thwack of his tail, slid into the canal, and 
headed for home. 

The ranger stood for a moment, watching 
the spot where Uncle Castor had dived. Then, 
he hurried away, for he had much work to do 
before the colony would be free from the men- 


125 


ace of those traps, which still infested its home 
shores. 

Therefore, Wallace set himself to work at 
the job of locating and removing all the traps 
on Patou and its nearby tributaries. In this 
work, he was aided by another ranger of more 
years and of greater experience. This man knew 
just where the traps were most likely to be 
found, and so well did the two work that all 
danger of this sort was removed from O-Go 
and his relatives. 

By the time this had been accomplished, 
winter was close at hand, for it was now well 
into November. Most of the ducks had fol¬ 
lowed the song birds on their long flight to 
the Southland, but more wild geese were com¬ 
ing in at Patou Pond than were leaving. The 
poplar trees were almost naked of leaves; the 
oaks and the birches, a short while before so 
gorgeous in color, were fading to a rusty 
brown; even the pines had begun to assume 
that duller green, which is their winter dress. 
The nights were now really cold, and the morn¬ 
ing sun was reflected in the shimmer of thin 
ice that lay wherever the water was motionless. 

All of these things were without power to 
disturb the beavers. Let winter come, and the 
last of the sap descend into the roots of the 
trees! They had food enough in storage for 
the longest of winters. Let sheet ice blanket 


126 


their pond, and the snow pile foot after foot 
upon it! Their stores were in deep water, well 
below frost level; and so, too, were the entrances 
to their lodges. Let the cold go to twenty, 
thirty, or even forty degrees below zero! Their 
fur was soft and warm; their thick-walled 
lodges were sufficiently heated by the warmth 
of the occupants’ bodies. 

Therefore, through gray days and sunshine, 
through clear nights and black, O-Go, Ilg, and 
Ela dwelt in the lodge of their parents, eating, 
sleeping and growing. There were no berries or 
pond lily roots for them now; but the bark 
of the poplar sticks was savory, and if their 
diet was monotonous, they probably did not 
realize it. Because there was so little room for 
play, they slept more than they had during 
the summer. Because they slept so much, they 
had less need of food. 

Thus, they spent their hours, and were 
happy, until spring once more found its way 
into the Northland. 



127 



O-GO’S FOURTH ENEMY 


D URING his second summer, O-Go ex¬ 
plored every foot of Patou Pond; for 
he was now almost a grown beaver, 
and therefore no longer kept under the con¬ 
stantly watchful eye of his mother. O-Go was 
very independent about the matter, going out 
of the lodge whenever he wished, and return¬ 
ing when it suited him to do so. 

Sometimes, Ilg or Ela would go with O-Go 
on his expeditions; but, as Ela was timid and 


128 


Ilg lazy, O-Go more often than not travelled 
alone, or in the company of his friend, 
Thwacker, a distant cousin, who lived in the 
next lodge. He was O-Go’s greatest admirer, 
and was always ready to follow him. 

Thwacker would have been with O-Go on 
the day when the latter started out to explore 
the creek above Patou Pond, if O-Go had not 
been too impatient to wait for dusk to come. 
But, as it was broad daylight when O-Go left 
the lodge of his parents, Thwacker had not 
yet appeared out of doors. 

O-Go was half way across the pond, when 
a sudden and swiftly-moving shadow startled 
him. At once, the young beaver dived; and 
it was well for him that he did so, for the 
shadow had been caused by the circling of a 
hungry eagle, as it coasted down to the attack. 
Usually, the eagle would not have troubled 
an animal so large as a beaver, but hunting 
had been poor that day, and O-Go appeared to 
be a fairly easy prey. 

When O-Go came again to the surface, he 
was many yards closer to his home than he 
had been at the time he had dived. He needed 
only a moment or two, in which to renew 
the supply of air in his lungs; then he would 
be ready for another under water swim as long 
as the first one. The eagle, however, did not 
allow him that long an intermission, but 


129 


plunged at him the instant his nose came above 
water, and O-Go was compelled to dive again. 

As he did so, the eagle immediately rose to 
a height of about one hundred feet. From that 
elevation, the great bird was able to see deep 
down into the water, and follow O-Go’s every 
move, as he swam beneath the surface. This 
time, O-Go did not remain under as long or 
travel as far as the first time. 

In only one respect did O-Go have an ad¬ 
vantage over the great bird. The eagle could 
not swim, and therefore dared not let his body 
come into actual contact with the water; for, 
if he became thoroughly wet, he could not rise 
from the surface. For this reason, O-Go was 
able to maintain a reasonably straight line of 
flight, and every plunge brought him closer 
to his home. Nevertheless, O-Go was fighting 
a losing battle, since the eagle was always upon 
him, and each successive plunge was shorter 
than the one before it. 

When the struggle had started, O-Go had 
been a full quarter-mile from the lodges. Now, 
after a series of desperate dives and hurried 
breath-takings, he was within a hundred yards 
of safety; but he was so thoroughly exhausted 
that it seemed hopeless to flee farther. 

The eagle no longer rose very high after 
each thrust at O-Go, for the canny bird now 
knew perfectly the direction in which the bea¬ 


no 


ver was travelling. He also knew just about 
where O-Go would next come to the surface. 
Therefore, he hovered close to the water, re¬ 
solved this time to make his kill. Apparently, 
however, he had overshot his mark, for he 
heard the splash of water immediately behind. 

Instantly, the eagle rose high in the air, in 
order that he might get a clear view of the 
water, and locate O-Go with certainty. His 
keen eye at once noticed that there was a change 
in the situation. Instead of one beaver, he now 
saw two. One of these dived instantly; the 
other lay on the surface, as though exhausted. 

The beaver seemed to be considerably larger 
than the eagle had thought. It would be ab¬ 
solutely impossible to carry it away to the nest 
on the mountain; but there was a hummock 
nearby, where a hungry bird might dine. With 
a triumphant scream, the eagle swooped down 
to finish the matter then and there. 

He was still twenty feet above the water, 
when Mother Beaver gave a tremendous 
thwack and dived. Then, swimming slowly, 
she made her way to the home lodge, to which 
O-Go had already escaped. 

Thereafter, O-Go never trusted himself to 
the open pond in full daylight. If necessity 
forced him to be abroad at such a time, he 
kept close to the shadow; nor did he forget to 
look aloft each time he came to the surface. 


131 



O-GO AND THWACKER 

T HERE had been a series of rains of a 
severity unusual at that season of the 
year. As a result of this downpour, 
there was deep water for several miles up the 
creek, which led into Patou Pond. Now, if 
ever, was the time for O-Go to go exploring 
in that direction, and he intended to do so. 
He had already started out once, but had been 
turned back by the eagle. This time, he would 
not make the mistake of travelling in daylight. 


132 




There is always danger to a beaver in leav¬ 
ing a territory with which he is entirely famil¬ 
iar. In his own neighborhood, he knows all 
the hiding places in which an enemy may lurk; 
he also knows all the places in which he may 
seek shelter in time of danger. Therefore, he 
is less likely to make a wrong turning that may 
lead him into peril. Old beavers seem to know 
this; and they seldom wander far from the 
vicinity of their own lodges. 

O-Go, however, was still young, and as he 
was adventurous to a degree not common 
among his kind, the waters above Patou were 
a constant lure to him. Where O-Go went, 
Thwacker would go. Hence, a very few eve¬ 
nings after O-Go’s escape from the eagle, the 
two friends were swimming up that creek. 

The two young beavers found the current 
less swift than might have been expected; and 
so had plenty of opportunity to examine the 
bank, as they went along. They swam without 
any noise, as beavers always do; and, from time 
to time, they paused to listen for a moment. 

Once, O-Go and Thwacker looked up to 
see a doe, who came to the water's edge, ac¬ 
companied by two spotted fawns. O-Go and 
Thwacker knew that she was harmless to 
them; and she, in turn, realized that no evil 
menaced her or her little ones; for she regarded 
them calmly, as she and the fawns drank their 


133 


fill. Then, as quietly as they had come, the 
three deer faded into the night-bound forest. 

Farther up the stream, O-Go and his com¬ 
panion came to a sandbar. There, at the side 
of the creek, sat a large, ring-tailed raccoon, 
busily engaged in washing some bit of food. 
He also ignored the explorers, for they were 
harmless, and were, moreover, far too large for 
him to consider them as a possible prey. He 
finished his task, and then settled to his eating, 
as O-Go and Thwacker passed on upstream. 

All about them, the night was a series of 
silences, studded with sounds that told the story 
of the forest. Now, from a distant hilltop, 
came the querulous complaint of a coyote, 
mourning to the white moon; now, close at 
hand, was heard the startled squeak of a mouse, 
as it was pounced upon by some questing owl; 
or the cry of a rabbit, victim of the blood¬ 
thirsty weasel. Over all brooded the great 
forest, the murmur of its treetops emphasizing, 
rather than breaking, the stillness of the night. 

The moon had hidden her beauty behind 
the western hills, and the creek lay entirely in 
shadow, when O-Go and Thwacker came into 
shallow water. Above them loomed a dam, 
like the one which retained the waters of their 
own pond, but apparently shorter and some¬ 
what higher. Its outer surface was a jumbled 
mass of sticks, tangled together in an inde- 


134 


scribable manner. Its top was a smoothly packed 
expanse of mud, on which a solitary beaver 
sat sentinel. He both saw and smelled the two 
visitors; but, as they were of his own kind, 
he neither dived nor gave warning. 

The pond, which O-Go and Thwacker 
found there, was not so large as the one from 
which they had come, but its size was suffi¬ 
cient for the needs of its colony, which was 
housed in a single large lodge. O-Go and 
Thwacker had never seen a beaver house of 
such great size, for those on Patou Pond were 
single-family lodges, while this one was occu¬ 
pied by three distinct groups. 

If the beavers of the upper dam were sur¬ 
prised at the visit of the two young friends, 
they in no way showed it; but permitted O-Go 
and Thwacker to go where they would, mak¬ 
ing no protest even when the strangers passed 
in and out of the lodge. Had O-Go and 
Thwacker wished to do so, they might have 
settled down in that colony as part of its regu¬ 
lar membership. 

This, however, the two friends had no in¬ 
tention of doing; their visit was entirely one 
of curiosity. Perhaps, they would come again; 
but, just now the night was too far advanced 
for them to delay longer. They climbed down 
the dam, and drifted slowly with the stream, 
returning to the lodges of their parents. 


135 



THE CLOUDBURST 

O GO and Thwacker went up Patou 
Creek a number of times after that 
first visit, and learned to know every 
foot of both banks from their own pond to 
the upper dam. They always found the beavers 
they met upstream to be as friendly as those 
of the home pond. However, the high water 
gradually went down; so that in time there 
were several places, where it was impossible 
to travel without being open to attack from 


136 


the bank. Accordingly, the two friends gave 
up their visits for a while. 

They did not, however, cease going up the 
creek as far as the bend, which lay about a 
mile above Patou Pond; since for that dis¬ 
tance there was still reasonably deep water. 

The bend was a delightful place. On one 
side, there lay a great sandbar, thickly over¬ 
grown with bushy willows, whose tender 
shoots made delicious eating. On the other side, 
was a bank about ten feet high, beneath which 
lay a little cave, where O-Go and Thwacker 
could drowse away the long day, whenever 
they did not desire to go home. The cave had 
of course no tunnel leading into it; but the 
bank above it projected out over the creek, 
thereby giving protection from any wander¬ 
ing lynx or coyote. 

The coolness of their cave was particularly 
pleasing to O-Go and Thwacker on a certain 
day in early September; for the weather was 
unusually hot, even for that season. The two 
friends lay stretched at full length on the soft, 
dry sand, now idly napping, now chewing 
indolently at the sticks, which they had 
brought with them into their shelter. 

From time to time, they heard the rumble 
of thunder, but they paid little or no attention 
to it, nor to the fact that it kept getting louder 
and closer. They had no fear of rain, for most 


137 


of their waking hours were spent in the water. 

Suddenly, a great roaring reached their ears, 
and, almost immediately thereafter, the cave 
was filled with swirling water. Instantly, O-Go 
and Thwacker plunged into the creek, only 
to be caught in a rushing torrent, which hurled 
them hither and yon, buffeting them terribly. 
A cloud-burst from the hills above had them 
in its grip. 

It was impossible to swim in that mad rush 
of water. All that O-Go and Thwacker could 
do was to keep their noses above the surface, 
and much of the time they could not do even 
that. It was fortunate that they were not 
pounded to death by the rocks rolled along in 
the terrible current, or brained by blows of the 
uprooted trees, which were tossed about as 
though they were as light as straws. 

As it was, O-Go and Thwacker received a 
severe beating during their swift ride on the 
crest of the turbulent waters. From start to 
finish of their wild journey, neither caught 
sight of the other; and it was not until the 
next evening that O-Go knew that his friend 
still lived. 

The cloud-burst had been a matter of only 
a few minutes duration, but the damage done 
by it had been tremendous; for, despite the 
retarding effect of the wide pond, a great tree 
trunk had been hurled with mighty force 


138 





All they could do was to keep their noses 
above the surface 







against the dam. Through the gap thus formed, 
the water had poured, tearing away the earth 
as it passed; and when the flood had subsided, 
the surface of Patou Pond had been lowered 
nearly two feet. 

The area of the pond had been reduced 
nearly one half by the disaster. The canals were 
almost empty of water, and the woods, which 
had formerly reached the shore, were now hun¬ 
dreds of feet back from it. Acres of mud flats 
stretched where there had once been shallow 
water; and the muskrats, who dwelt at the 
west end of the pond, found their houses en¬ 
tirely exposed. Their misfortune was proba¬ 
bly a benefit to the beavers; since the coyotes 
found them a comparatively easy prey, and 
therefore did not seek to molest the beavers. 

Nevertheless, the peril to the beavers was 
grave. They could no longer travel in con¬ 
cealment through the canal that led into their 
slashing; nor could they work in the woods, 
secure in the knowledge that the sheltering 
water was but a step or two away. At any 
moment, some enemy might pounce upon one 
of them from the underbrush, and the clumsy 
beaver would fall an easy victim. 

The warm weather would soon be over, 
and the sap would then descend into the roots 
of the trees, making the bark of their branches 
almost worthless to the colony. Before that 


141 


time should come, it was necessary for the 
beavers to store a vast amount of food. Trees 
must be felled, and must be stripped of their 
limbs. Those limbs must be cut into suitable 
lengths, and must be stored beneath the water. 
In this work, it was the custom of all the 
beavers to take part. 

This year, however, only a part of the col¬ 
ony could assist in laying in supplies for the 
winter. The young ones of the colony must 
be kept close to the lodges, instead of being 
brought into the slashing by their parents as 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela had been the previous year. 
Moreover, the mother beavers were unable to 
leave the lodges even long enough to bring 
food for the day, as the land was now so close 
at hand that the little ones might wander ashore 
and into danger, even in that short interval. 

The number of beavers able to work at gath¬ 
ering food for storage was also cut down in 
another way. Workers were needed to repair 
the dam, or else the fall rains would be wasted, 
and winter find Patou Pond at its present low 
level. If that were to happen, the entrances 
to the lodges would be left above frost-level. 
Then the beavers would be frozen in, and 
would starve in their houses, no matter how 
much food lay in storage a few yards away. 

Not only was there a scarcity of labor, but 
the actual work of storage was more than 


142 


doubled. The beavers could no longer float 
their foodsticks down the canal, letting the 
water do most of the work. They must drag 
each stick across a muddy district nearly two 
hundred yards wide, before it could be launched 
at all. Sticks, which one beaver could handle 
with ease in the water, required all the strength 
of two workers, when transported by land. 
Twice as many guards were now needed, as 
were required when the workers had the shelter 
of the canal; but these could not be spared. 
The extra risk had to be taken. 

O-Go, Ela, and Thwacker did their full 
share in all this work, laboring long hours in 
the slashing or at the dam. Even the lazy Ilg 
seemed to realize the need for industry, and 
worked as he never had worked before. His 
strength was as great as was that of the others 
of his age, and though he did not keep at it 
as persistently as they did, he helped. 

In spite of the heroic efforts of the colony, 
the amount of food placed in storage that year 
was pitifully small. Had the winter that came 
upon them been as long protracted as the one 
preceding it, few of the beavers of Patou Pond 
would have lived through it. However, spring 
arrived a full three weeks ahead of schedule. 
It found them all poorly nourished and weak, 
but still alive and ready to face whatever might 
await them. 


143 



O-GO AND HIS MATE 

S EASONS had come and gone, and 
through them all O-Go had grown and 
prospered. Now, at four years of age, 
he was one of the largest beavers in the colony 
on Patou Pond. From tip to tip, he was over 
forty inches long, though his spade-like tail 
made up ten of those inches. His weight was 
over fifty pounds, and his fur the finest a beaver 
could have. That means that no animal of any 
sort could have a coat better than his. 

144 


His teeth, too, were perfect, his four orange- 
colored incisors forming a self-sharpening set of 
chisels that could fell any tree suited to his 
purpose; or strip from its branches the bark, 
which his sixteen powerful molars quickly re¬ 
duced to a pulp ready for digestion. 

Although it was now the first of May, the 
season had been so retarded that O-Go still 
retained most of his soft underfur; but much 
of the layer of fat, which had underlain his skin 
at the beginning of the winter, was by now 
absorbed. It had gone to make up for the sim¬ 
plicity of a diet limited to the bark of sticks 
fetched by him from the storage pile. Later 
in the year, O-Go would weigh four or five 
pounds more, but his fur would have lost, 
for the time being, much of its rich beauty. 

Ela and her mate lived at the old home lodge, 
along with Father and Mother Beaver; but 
O-Go and Ilg no longer stayed there. They had 
left home a year ago, when their new brother 
and sisters had arrived, and they had not re¬ 
turned. Ilg made his home permanently at the 
lodge of Uncle Castor. O-Go, too, was stay¬ 
ing there for the present, though he had a lodge 
of his own, to which he would soon return. 

It was a good thing that Ilg had never mated, 
for he was that rare type, a lazy beaver. He 
seemed never to feel any desire to cut down 
big trees; to clear away underbrush, in order 


145 


to make a skidway to the water; or to make 
repairs on the dam. His front teeth grew as 
rapidly as did those of other beavers; but he 
gave them their needed wear in as easy a man¬ 
ner as he could. He was a tremendous eater, 
and that did part of it. Besides, he spent much 
time in the idle gnawing of sticks. 

If the other members of the colony felt any 
strong disapproval of Ilg’s laziness, they did 
nothing to show the fact; they tolerated him, 
making no effort to force him to share in their 
labor. He lived in his Uncle Castor’s lodge, 
helped himself to sticks that others had placed 
in storage, and dined handsomely on the top 
branches of trees which they had felled. He 
brazenly helped himself to a full share of the 
pond lily roots, for which they had dived; yet 
they never struck him, or even attempted to 
shove him aside. Ilg lived on colony charity. 

Now, Ilg lay on the floor of Uncle Castor’s 
lodge. He was munching the bark of a stick; 
one which O-Go had brought home from the 
storage pile, intending it for his own supper. 
O-Go, who was fully as large as Ilg, and far 
more active, could easily have defended his 
property; but he had not done so. O-Go had 
never in his life fought with any beaver, and 
would not bother to do so now. It was less 
trouble to go for another supply of food. 

O-Go entered the tunnel, dived through the 


146 


water at the base of it, and came up to the 
moonlit surface of Patou Pond. Then, swim¬ 
ming strongly with his webbed hind feet, while 
his fore paws hung almost motionless, he set 
out for the dam. There were willows growing 
there, and they were already green with the 
sweet, strongly-pulsing sap of early spring. 
“They would be very good,” thought O-Go. 

Soon he was at the dam, and was climbing 
from the water. He selected a fine young sap¬ 
ling, and brought it down with half a dozen 
bites of his powerful incisors. Here was a meal 
fit for any beaver, and there was no greedy Ilg, 
waiting to cheat him of it. He would have that 
sapling all to himself. 

O-Go was wrong in that idea. Another bea¬ 
ver appeared at his side, and with her there 
were three little ones. These were no larger than 
O-Go, himself, had been four years before. 

Immediately, the mother beaver and her 
three little ones began to eat at the sapling, 
which O-Go had felled for himself; while he, 
without protest, went on guard duty. He sat 
bolt upright on top of the dam, his coin-like 
little ears keen to catch any hostile sound, his 
nostrils alert to detect any hostile odor. He 
must see to it that no evil came near his mate 
or their helpless little ones. 

From far away down the creek, which 
flowed from the eastern end of the dam, there 


147 


came to O-Go a whiff of man-odor. It would 
be well for him to keep a close watch, lest the 
person bearing that odor come too close. 

All-a-quiver, O-Go waited. Yes; the man 
was approaching. Now, he was only a hun¬ 
dred yards away; but there was, as yet, no 
danger, for the dark water lay only a foot 
or two distant. Therefore, O-Go still waited, 
hearing every move the man made, despite the 
latter’s effort to move silently. 

Finally, only twenty-five yards from where 
O-Go sat, the man halted. Then, softly, very 
softly, he gave the low whistle, with which 
of old he had called O-Go to receive his gifts. 
By the moonlight, he could just make out the 
form of a beaver on the dam before him. “It 
must be O-Go,” thought he. “No other beaver 
would so long have remained that close to a 
human being.” 

Wallace repeated that soft whistle, and this 
time took a cautious step forward, holding his 
hand before him. In that hand was a potato. 

O-Go waited no longer. He thwacked and 
dived. When he came up, he was many feet 
from the dam, and was swimming away. He 
was returning, with his mate and their little 
ones, to his lodge among the willows. 


148 






















































































